Eternal Darkness: Origins
by Lotus4
Summary: A Secret is hidden in the Veil, and when it begins to tear, humanity must pay the price. It finally happened! Chapter 10 is finished and posted! w00t!
1. Back To Reality?

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1**Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem: Origins**

**Part 1**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

By Lotus

Disclaimers: I do not own, nor do I claim to own, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, nor do I own any random copyrights that happen to pop up over the course of the fic(i.e., M&M's, Starbucks, The Matrix, etc.).  Once I've finished my army of robots and taken over the world, I *will* own them.  But, until then, you're going to have to put up with these disclaimers.  Sorry.

Notes: Takes place after the end of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.  I know nothing about the possible sequel (Sanity's Redemption), so if the sequel rolls around and proves everything in the fanfic to be totally wrong, I apologize in advance.  Oh, yeah, rated PG-13 for violence, profanity, a few sorry attempts to be as freaky as the game, and, for those of you who haven't beat the game all three times, spoilers.  Rating may go up in future chapters.

Prologue 

_            And so it has come to pass.  Of the three Ancients, nothing remains. In their never-ending quest for dominance, the three destroyed one another, and now they and their abominable servants are gone from this world._

_            Mantorok, the Keeper, lies slowly dying in his own temple, able to do nothing but live out his days, watching...plotting..._

_            The Liche, the once-mortal servant of the Ancients_, _is dead at the hands of the Guardian of Light, and has taken his place in the Chamber where the enchanted book once resided.  The souls of those who gave their lives to halt the advance of the Ancients are finally at peace._

            _As I write these words, looking out on the ruins of Ehn'gah_, _my mind turns to the chaos of the future.  After all, the death of the Liche was only the beginning..._

_            Who I am, or what I am, is no longer of any importance.  This is not my story, after all. What is more important is what became of the Guardian of Light..._

Chapter 1 

Back to Reality...?

            After the "incidents" at Roivas manor-after the fall of the Ancients-Alexandra Roivas returned to D.C. to continue her studies.  It was a relief, leaving behind the madness and the chaos of her own dark destiny and going back to being what she was before-a normal college student with a hyperactive roommate and a steady boyfriend. Life had returned to an almost normal state of affairs, although her brush with insanity had left her a bit more wary than before. She had taken the Tome with her-it was not safe to leave it alone-but as she left she had locked the doors of the manor-possibly forever.  If there was one thing she didn't need, it was to return to the memories of that haunted house...

*-*-*

            "Alex?"

            Alex Roivas rolled over, stubbornly refusing to wake up.  It couldn't be morning yet.  It wasn't light enough outside.  Besides, she was having a very interesting dream involving Colin and a lot of whipped cream, and she refused to have it interrupted.

            "Hey, Alex?"

            She pulled the pillow over her head and muttered something like "Mnrrrm."

            "Alex!" Her roommate yanked the pillow away.  "What's wrong with you?  You're missing the best part of the day!"

            "Jen, go away.  I was up till two typing my essay.  I don't want to get up right now." And she pulled the pillow back.      

            "C'mon, the fraternity boys just got the freshmen to run around the campus buck naked.  Isn't that worth getting up to see?"

            "Jen, they did that last year *and* the year before that.  It's not funny anymore." She pulled the covers back over her head.

            Jen insistently pulled off the bed sheets.  "Alexandra Roivas, you are getting out of bed right now whether you like it or not.  Now go!"

            "You sound like my grandpa."

            "Thank you."

            "So..." Alex slipped into a comfortable T-shirt.  "What is it that you so desperately wanted me to get up for?  Aside from the streaking freshmen, I mean, because that kinda loses it's humor after the second time." She checked the mirror to fix her hair-and let out a gasp of shock.

            The reflection in the mirror wasn't hers.  Looking back at her was someone who couldn't have been much older than she was.  Someone with wide, dark eyes and sun-bronzed skin.

            She was staring in the mirror, and Ellia was staring back.

            "Alex?" Jen peeked in the mirror.  "Alex, what's wrong?  You okay?"

            Alex shook her head.  "Nothing.  It's nothing.  So where do we go now?"

            Her roommate shrugged.  I dunno.  Let's go bother Colin, he's usually up about this time."

            _How very like Jen_, she thought.  _She gets me out of bed for no reason at all and doesn't even know what she wants to do with the day. _ "Sure, whatever."

            She began to exit the room, but before she left, she took another peek in the mirror.  Ellia was gone, and the glass showed only her own reflection.

            "So, Alex," Colin leaned back in his chair, taking a bite of his pizza.  "Why did you fly up to Rhode Island all of a sudden?  What was the big hurry?" 

            "Colin, I wish you would stop eating pizza for breakfast." Jen sipped her mocha-chino.  "It's so disgusting.  It's like, why don't you just open up an artery and stuff it with fat?"

            "Pizza doesn't clog your arteries."

            "Yes it does."

            "Are you a doctor?"

            "No."

            "Then stop telling me what to eat.  So what was that all about, Alex?"

            Alex looked away.  What was she supposed to tell them-that she had discovered a book made of human flesh that told the chronicle of an Ancient evil, and that she had become the last in a line of chosen many to combat the Ancients face-to-face? Yeah, they'd believe that. "My...my grandpa was murdered.  They needed me to identify the body."

            Colin put down his pizza and put an arm around Alex's shoulder.  "I'm sorry, Alex. I didn't mean to bring it up."

            "It's okay. You didn't know." She turned back to Colin and got her second nasty surprise of the day.

            Either her vision was going or she was finally losing it. The world appeared to be in monochrome-everything was shrouded in light gray. Color and hue had been reduced to different shades of gray. 

            "Alex? Hey, Alex, is something wrong?"

            Alex blinked hard and rubbed her eyes, but the world didn't return to normal. She tried again. Everything was still in black and white and grey. She looked down at her arm. Even her own body was colorless.

            "You okay?"

            She squinted. "Yeah, I guess. I must be getting old, though, I think my vision's going."

            "Alex, you're not getting old. Maybe you just stared into the sun and got phazed or something." Her ever-unconcerned roommate took another sip of her coffee. "Happens to me all the time." 

            "If you say so." Alex said uneasily, unable to shrug off the strange occurrence as easily as her roommate could. "Guys, I think I'll go back up to my dorm. I don't feel so great all of a sudden."

            "You sick?"  Colin asked.

            "No, no, I don't think I'm sick." Alex avoided meeting his eyes. "I just don't feel well, okay? I'll feel better as soon as I go lay down. I'm sure I'll be back down in a minute."

            The stairs back up to her dorm room felt longer than usual today. Perhaps she had just been walking slower, or maybe she had paused to take in the sights around her. Either way.

            Even her room was covered in the thin grey film, and nothing would make it go away. By this point Alex was fairly sure she wasn't dreaming, and she knew she wasn't sick. There was no logical explanation for the sudden lack of all color.

            Unless...

            She reached out to touch the desk, just on the off chance that what she suspected was true. It was smooth, and felt like silk. She pulled upward, and saw that she was holding what looked like a thin sheet of fabric, with the color and image of the monochrome desk still printed on it like a design. She poked it with her finger, and it wrinkled under her touch like a curtain.

            The suspicion was beginning to grow stronger. Praying she was wrong, Alex grabbed a pocketknife from her desk drawer-she had kept one there since she returned, just to be safe-and stabbed at the material in her hands.

            The blade of the knife sank into the material but did not penetrate it, and the image of the knife, buried up to the handle in the desk, appeared on the piece that she held in her hands.

            "That which is within the Veil cannot penetrate the Veil, Alex. I should think you would know that."

            Alex whirled around. Sitting calmly on her bed, as though this was perfectly normal, was herself.

            "The desk and the knife both lie within the Veil." The other her went on explaining. "Therefore, if you try to pierce the Veil with something that is already within it, all it will do is shift position." She casually crossed her legs, and Alex noticed that, unlike everything else, she was in full, normal color. 

            "Besides," she went on, "You wouldn't want to penetrate the Veil, would you? You wouldn't want to see beyond...your very own ancestor warned you of that, Alex."

            Alex backed away from the figure of herself, glancing at the material she held in her hands. "You mean this-this, all around me-this is the Veil? This is Reality?"

            "Bingo." The other her lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "This is Reality, all around you. This is what the Ancients might see if they ever entered the world-everything that we consider real draped in the Veil, and themselves in full, glorious color. Only, of course, they would be able to tear it apart whenever they chose to...

            "So," She turned to face Alex. "You've figured out what that is. Three guesses who I am." 

            "Me?"

            The figure grinned. "Wrong."

            But before she could ask her any more, Colin and Jen burst into the room.

            "Alex, are you sure you're okay ?" Jen walked in. "We heard...Oh my god." She caught sight of the knife in the desk. "Alex, how did that get here? What happened?"

            "I...I don't know." Alex lied. "It was there when I came up." She hurriedly glanced toward her bed. The other her was still sitting there, smiling at her.

            _What's wrong with them? Can't they tell there's another me sitting right there?_ She thought, panicked. Then it occurred to her. They couldn't. The other her was beyond the Veil-beyond their vision. They couldn't see or hear her, or even realize she was there.

            _Then why can I?_

            "Are you sure you're alright, Alex?" Colin enquired. "You look awfully pale. Here, sit down." He motioned toward the bed, and the figure sitting there laughed in amusement.

            "No! I mean, no, really, I'm fine. Just a little shaken....by that knife in the desk. Okay? Really, I'm alright. I just need to lie down for a minute."

            Colin sighed. "If you say so. Call us if anything's wrong, okay?"

            "Yeah, I will. Thanks."

            "See?" The Alex on the bed asked. "Neither of them even know I'm here-because I'm not within the Veil."

            "Then why can I?"

            'Alex' tilted her head, as though she didn't understand. "Excuse me?"

            "If you're beyond the Veil, and those within it can't see you, then why can I?"

            She laughed, then got up off the bed.  "Let's just say, you were partly right.  Not by much, but partly.  I'm leaving for a moment, but I'll be back.  See you soon, Alex." She laughed and walked out the door.

            "Why won't you tell me who you are?" Alex ran to the doorframe as the image of her walked down the stairs.

            The other her turned around, calling over her shoulder as she walked.  "Because I think you already know."

            _'I think you already know'...But I don't._

            Alex was staring at the monochrome ceiling, trying to make sense of what her double had said.  She didn't 'already know' anything-anything that was of any use, at least.  Nothing that could do this.

            Someone was fiddling with her safe.

            Managing to brush aside her confusion, she made her way to the wall where the roommate's safe was kept.  Someone was speaking-someone she couldn't see.

            "Damn fool," the voice was muttering.  "Damn fool, why did you keep it?  Why didn't you get rid of it?  Why didn't you take that damned thing away from this world?"

            The voice was very, very familiar.  

            "Should have burned it–should have got rid of it–should have *killed* it, cursed thing!" There was no sound from the safe-no jiggling of the lock, no clicking from the door, nothing-nothing except a banging on the door.

            "You knew-_you could see-_and you kept it in this world!  Kept this thing from beyond the Veil!"

            Already sure of who she would see, Alex turned the corner and came face to face with exactly who she expected to.

            "Maximilian Roivas..."

            The ethereal ghost of her ancestor turned to her, stared for a moment in anger-or was it confusion?-and vanished in an instant.

            _He was right.  I should've got rid of it. _ Alex thought, lying down on her bed, shutting her eyes to close out the black and white.  _Why did I keep it anyway?  It's no use to me.  And it's not like I need a memento..._

            "Alex?"

            Without even opening her eyes, Alex knew who was present.  "Hey, Colin."

            "Jen and I were just thinking.  If you're feeling better, you want to go see a movie?  On me..."

            Alex shrugged.  "Why not.  Sure.  I'll be down in a minute." _Of course the whole thing will be in black-and-white..._

            Colin smiled.  "Glad you're feeling better. 'Kay, Jenny, she says she can come."

            "Great.  Can I come up there for just a minute?  There's something I want to get before we go."

            Alex sat up and was about to go out the door when she was greeted, not by Jenny, but by a walking cadaver, in full living color.  Out of sheer surprise she took a step back, fumbling for her dresser drawer where she kept her pistol. 

            _How did they follow me here?_

            The next moment it was gone, replaced by Jenny, looking confused, in black and white.

            "Something wrong, Alex?" Jen asked.  "What is it?  Why are you staring?  Have I got something on my face?  Alex?"

            Alex shook her head in apology.  "Nothing.  Sorry.  Just got a bit of a headache.  Come on, we'll miss the movie if we stand around here waiting."

            Colin and Jen nodded and left the room.  Alex held back a moment, reached into her dresser drawer, and slipped her pistol into her pocket.

            Just in case.

            "I'm glad you felt up to going to the movies, Alex.  Did you like it?" Colin asked, flopping down on a couch.

            "Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good." Alex replied, looking around.  "Hey, where'd Jenny go?"

            "Up to your dorm.  Said she needed to do something.  What do you think's up with her?"

            "Your guess's as good as mine." She turned her eyes to her dorm room door.

            Slowly but deliberately, a Bonethief was advancing up the stairway, step by predatory step.  

            "So what did you think of–Alex?"

            It had reached the landing--

            "Alex, is something wrong?"

            Claws outstretched, it burst through the door–

            "Alex, what's going on?"

            A scream rang out from the dormitory–

            "Jenny!" Alex bolted up the stairs as fast as she could go, hoping against hope that her friend's mind was still her own when she got there.

            "Alex, calm down!"

            She stepped through what was left of the door–Jen was simply standing there, barely registering her presence–

            "Alex!"

            Just standing there–the Bonethief had her–Jen was one of the Possessed–

            "Alex, answer me!"

            Or maybe she had never been human–maybe it was merely a facade–one that she had been able to see through, if only for an instant–

            "What's wrong with you?"

            She wasn't human–not anymore, if she had ever been–Alex had no choice–

            "Alex, for God's sake, put down that gun!" 

            The sound of the gunshot rang out, drowning out everything around it–Jenny, or what was pretending to be Jenny, screamed with shock–

            Silence.

            "Alex, what the hell are you doing?" Colin was standing in the doorway, shocked and confused.  Jenny had backed against a wall, terrified, blood dripping from where the bullet had grazed her shoulder.  "What's wrong with you?"

            _What's wrong with me...?_

"I don't know..."

            "What is that supposed to mean?"

            _I don't know what's wrong with me..._

"Why did you shoot at Jenny?"

            _It wasn't real...none of it was real...My God, I'm going mad..._

"Answer me, Alex!"

            _They're not safe around me..._I'm_ not safe around me..._

            "Alex..." Jenny, for once, was quiet, looking, pleading, up at Alex.

            _I have to run away..._

            Alex raised her gun again, and she could see Jenny flinch in the corner of her eye.  One bullet was all it took to shatter the window.  She dropped the gun and dived.

            "What are you doing?!  Alex!!"

            Falling...it could only have been a few seconds, but it seemed like hours...the concrete below was cold and unyielding...

            There was someone standing above her.  Jenny?  Colin?  No, it couldn't be.  Three faces, staring down at her, three troubled faces, each only nodding in acknowledgment when Alex met their eyes. 

            All of them so familiar...

            "Mom?  Dad?  Grandpa?"

            Unconsciousness drowned out any answer.

            "Alex!!" Colin pushed open the door and ran to the spot where Alex had fallen.  "Alex, are you alright?  Where are--" He stopped.

            Alex was unconscious, being carried in the arms of...someone.  He couldn't tell whom.  He thought he could discern a tall, elderly man, but the figure was so faint as to be almost phantasmal.  Without a word, the man turned and walked away.  He almost seemed to be fading...no, that couldn't be.  That was impossible...

End Chapter 1 


	2. I See Dead People

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1**Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem: Origins**

**Part 1**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

by Lotus

Disclaimers: I don't see why I have to do this *every* chapter....well, anyway, Eternal Darkness does not belong to me.  It belongs to the geniuses at Silicon Knights.  I am not the geniuses at Silicon Knights.  Therefore, this game does not belong to me.  Simple logic.(Geometry is taking over my brain...)

Chapter 2 I See Dead People 

            _It has begun.  As I knew it would._

_            I suppose I should have seen it.  It was inevitable.  There was nothing that could be done to prevent it.  I knew that, better than anyone.  _

_            If only I had been able to warn them..._

_            Ehn'gah is quiet today, as it has been for centuries, empty and desolate, the Guardians gone with the inhabitants themselves.  Now that the dying cries of the citizens no longer echo in the streets, the place seems almost peaceful.  Almost.  If you can ignore the bloodstained history that still permeates every inch of the place._

_            Enough dwelling on the past.  What concerns us is the here and now.  And the here and now is in very real danger._

            "She's been keeping something from us, Jenny.  I know it."

            "So what, Colin, that is no reason to break into her safe!" Jen protested.  "That's just plain old rude!"

            "I want to know what's happening, Jen.  And I want to know why she's acting like this.  And why she shot you in the shoulder.  And why she jumped out a third-story window.  Among other things." Colin continued to fiddle with the lock.  "I've almost got it."

            "I can't believe you, Colin.  I didn't think you'd stoop to snooping around in your girlfriend's stuff.  And for all we know, she just has money in there.  The safe might have nothing to do with it."

            "No.  There's something in here that she's keeping secret.  I heard her messing with it, and she shut it really quickly when I came in.  Ah.  There. Got it." The lock popped open.  "Now, what could be in here..." He reached into the reinforced metal cube, and his hand came to rest on a box-like shape.  

            "I think it's a book, or something." He pulled the contents of the safe into the light–and the book blinked at him.

            No.  That had to be wrong.  Books didn't blink.  Books didn't have eyes.  At least most of them didn't.

            Then how come this one had tiny eyes lining the circle on the cover?

            Colin shook it off.  It was a decoration.  It was just an ornament.  There weren't really eyes on the cover.  And they most certainly didn't blink.

            "Colin, what is that?" Jen took a step back.  

            "It's a book.  What does it look like?"

            "Colin, that looks a lot like skin on the cover."

            "Don't be stupid.  It can't be skin.  It wouldn't stay together."

            "That looks like skin, Colin.  That looks a whole lot like skin and that looks like bones in the binding--"

            "It is not skin and it is not bones.  Stop being a baby." Colin placed the book on the table and looked over the cover.  "No title...how odd."

            Jenny's voice had risen a few octaves; she seemed genuinely panicked now.  "Colin, Alex didn't want us to know about this, and there's probably a very good reason for that.  Now why don't you just put it back, lock the door, and pretend this never happened?"

            Colin snapped the book shut in frustration and turned to Jenny.  "Jenny, if Alex was keeping something from us, I want to know why.  I, personally, would like an explanation for how Alex's been acting, and maybe this has it." Turning back to the book, Colin opened the cover and flipped to the first page.  "'The Procession of Flesh and Bone...'" He said, reading out loud.

            "Colin, you shouldn't do this!" 

            "There's nothing you can do or say to change my mind." He replied.  "'Herein is contained a history, a history that spans all the centuries of civilizations, a history that is even now being written and becoming the present.  But this is not the history of one individual, nor even of a family of individuals.  It is a history of many, many Chosen, from across the seemingly impenetrable reaches of space and time, and of those who lie Beyond, whom the eyes of mortals were never meant to see. Like it or not, believe it or not as you will.  Your perceptions will not change reality, but merely color it. '" Eagerly, Colin turned the page.  "'Prologue: A Death in the Family.  In the summer of the year 2000 Anno Domini, Alexandra Roivas, a student at a D.C. University studying abstract mathematics and number theory, received a summons to the mansion of her grandfather, Dr. Edward Roivas, from the Chief of Police in Rhode Island.' Jenny, why is Alex in this book?"

            "You tell me." Jenny whimpered from over his shoulder.  "You're the one who thought this was such a damn good idea."

            "Stop whining.  'She was informed, upon arriving, that her grandfather had been the victim of a brutal murder.  The cause of death was a mystery to the police-no sign of intrusion save for the absence of the head, an undue amount of force exerted on the body--'Jenny, what's wrong?"

            The girl was covering her hands with her eyes, and was hunched over in fright.  "Colin...I saw it..."

            "What do you mean you saw it?"

            "The body...I swear I could see it, right there in front of me...like I was right there...oh my God, it was terrible..." Jen trailed off.

            "But that's not possible." Colin wondered aloud.  "You can't have seen it.  That happened a month ago."

            "Well, I did.  I know I did, I know what I saw." Jenny protested.

            Colin went on reading.  "'–and there was no evidence except for the body.  The police were baffled, and could do nothing to apprehend the murderer.  Alex, however, became determined to solve the mystery, and, after attending the funeral, entered her grandfather's ancient mansion alone, vowing not to leave until she had determined the circumstance, if not the identity, of the murderer.

            "'After wandering the few accessible areas of the mansion for a time, Alex discovered her grandfathers secret study--'" 

            "Behind the bookcase in the library."

            Colin looked up momentarily.  "What was that?"

            "The secret passage behind the bookcase in the library."

            He checked the book.  "How did you know that?"

            "Because I can see it, Colin.  Right here, in front of me.  I don't know why you don't believe me."

            He couldn't find a way to answer her, so Colin merely turned back to the book.  "'–her grandfather's secret study behind a library bookcase.  Contained therein was this very Tome, which she read from, unknowing of it's origins or what was between it's covers.'"

            "Colin, please, stop reading."

            "Why?" Colin turned the page.  "'Chapter One: The Chosen One.  'To think that once I could not see beyond the Veil of our reality...to see those who dwell beyond.  My life has purpose, for I have learned the frailty of flesh and bone...I was once a fool...' 'In the days of the dawn of the Roman Empire, there lived a centurion by the name of Pious Augustus.  A gifted tactician and a dedicated soldier, Pious continued to serve the Roman Army even when most of his comrades had retired and pursued political careers.'"

            "He's in centurion armor, he has a gladius, he's short by today's standards, he has brown hair and a five-o-clock shadow, and he looks like he could knock you flat with an arm behind his back." Jenny cut in.  "Am I right?"

            "Colin checked the small illustration at the top of the page.  "To the letter."

            "I knew it.  Please, stop reading, Colin, I don't want to see any more."

            "I can't just stop reading, Jen.  Think about it.  Alex was involved in something that reaches all the way back to the Roman Empire!  Don't you want to find out what it is?"

            "No.  Now put it down."

            He ignored her, turning back to the page.  "After a long and hard-won battle in the Southwestern region of the Empire's territory, Pious received an order from his Emperor to search the area for treasured and legendary artifacts rumored to be hidden in the area.  As he searched, he heard, amidst the desert winds, the calling of many voices that he could not recognize.

            "'Enticed, he followed them to a circle of five stone pillars, which, to his shock, glowed with Magickal energy.  As he stepped into the circle, unconsciousness overtook him, and he awakened it what has become known, throughout the ages, as the Forbidden City.

            "'Others had obviously been here before him; the bodies of the slain littered the tiles of the Forbidden City.  Many of these restless dead rose up and confronted the wandering centurion.  These were not true dead, but rather the undead emissaries of Mantorok, the Great Ancient of Chaos.' What's an Ancient...?"

            Jenny screamed.  

            It wasn't a very loud scream-it was more in shock than in fear-but it was enough to jolt Colin out of his literary spell.  "Jenny!"

            "Stop it, Colin!  Don't read any more, I'm begging you!  I don't want to see any more!" Jenny was again covering her eyes, and she was on the verge of sobbing.  "I don't want to see anymore..."

            "Jenny, please, calm down!"

            "Calm down?!  How the hell can you tell me to calm down?  You can't see what I'm seeing!" She was shouting and rocking back and forth and beginning to cry.  "I just don't want to see anymore..."

            "Jenny, I can't--"

            She was no longer listening.  Upon hearing these words, Jenny took off for the door.  She hadn't gone very far when she stopped dead, eye to eye with an unfamiliar figure.

            Although, admittedly, it was hard to come eye-to-eye with someone who had nothing but empty sockets.

            The color drained from the girl's face, and her eyes widened till her pupils were ringed by the whites.  One phrase escaped her throat, choked and afraid.

            "Dr.  Roivas...?" 

            The specter of Alex's grandfather only nodded in confirmation.

            Jenny backed away a few steps, transfixed at the sight of someone she knew for a fact was dead standing right in front of her.  She made a few attempts at speech, then, eyes rolling back in her sockets, she collapsed on the ground on a dead faint.

            "Jenny?"

            Jenny squeezed her eyes tight shut.  She didn't want to wake up.  Not after the nightmares she'd been having...

            "Jenny, are you awake?" Colin's voice.  He sounded concerned.

            No.  That was stupid.  They were just nightmares.  She hadn't been getting visions.  And she had certainly not seen Dr. Roivas.  Dr. Roivas was dead.

            "Hey, Jenny, wake up."

            "Can I ask you a kind of stupid question?" Jen asked timidly.

            "Fire away."

            "Um..." Jenny kept her eyes shut.  "Are the ghosts still here?"

            There was a pause.  Then, "Jenny, do you want me to say what will make you feel better, or do you want me to tell you the truth?"

            That wasn't a good sign.  "The truth."

            "Yes.  They are."

            Jenny froze. 

            "And there are a lot more of them too."

            The girl gave a low moan of dread and turned over in her bed, face to her pillow. 

            "Jenny, you're going to have to get up eventually."

            "No, I don't."

            "Jenny, they've all talked to me, they're all perfectly friendly, and no one's going to hurt you.  Now get up."

            Reluctantly, Jenny turned over and opened her eyes.  Seven figures stood over her, all of them with the same blank eye sockets that she had seen in the ghost of Dr. Roivas. And she had sen all of them before–in the nightmares that had danced through her unconscious brain just a few minutes earlier.

            "Did you dream, Jenny?" Colin asked.  "I figured you might, since you seemed to be the one getting the visions from the book."

            "Yes, I did."

            "What did you see?"

            Jenny recounted the images she had seen in her mind, and Colin nodded with understanding.

            "I thought so." He replied.  "Even unconscious, you received the visions of the events in the Tome.  Everything that you dreamed of was written here." He held up the Tome, which gave her a slow, lazy blink.

            "You mean...the Ancients...the Guardians...all of it?"

            Colin nodded again.  "All of it written here.  All of it happened." He glanced at the specters all around him.  "I trust you know who these are?"

            Jen's eyes surveyed the room, speaking the name of each now-familiar phantom as her eyes met their empty gaze.

            "Ellia...Anthony...Paul...Karim...Maximilian...Roberto...Dr. Roivas..." She turned to each of them, mystified.  "Why are you here?"

            "Because, even though you have read from the Tome," The spirit of Edward Roivas spoke up, "There is still much you need to learn in a very short time."  

            "Why did you run away, Alex?" The second Alex walked no more than ten steps behind the first.

            "Because of you."

            "How do you know it was because of me?"

            Alex did not turn to her double.  "It's called logical thinking, I don't know if it ever occurred to you.  Let's recap.  First, you show up.  Then, things start happening that don't make sense.  Put two and two together." She snapped.

            "You've gotten Jenny and Colin involved in this, you know..."

            "They are not involved." Alex continued walking.  "For all they know, I've run off and committed myself to an asylum.  They don't need to know the truth about any of this."

            "They have already discovered it..."

            Alex whirled around.  Her double was still standing ten steps away from her.  "Why are you staying so far away?  Are you afraid of me?" She glared.

            The other her shook her head innocently.  "I have no reason to be afraid of you, Alex."

            "Then why?"

            "Because those two won't let me get any closer."

            Confused, Alex looked all around her.  In spite of her double's words, there was no one standing anywhere near her.

            At least there didn't seem to be...

            "But what is it?" Colin enquired, examining the Tome.  "I mean, where did it come from? Who's writing it?  Does it write itself?"

            "We don't know." None of the ghosts was looking directly at them, as the last time one of them looked Jenny in the eye, she had shivered and looked the other way.  "It appeared to each of us-most of us, anyway-in a chamber removed from the world we knew.  We have no way of knowing who wrote it or where it came from."

            "For all we know, it very well could write itself." The spirit of Brother Luther spoke up.  "There is no other way it could record the events as they happened."  

            "May I ask a question?" Jenny meekly spoke up from a corner of the room.  "What's happened to Alex?  How does all this...tie in to what's happening now?"

            "We do not know that either." Karim answered him.  "We do not know what has happened to the Keeper of the Light any more than you do."

            "Keeper of the Light?  Is that Alex's title?" Colin was less uncomfortable about meeting the ghost's empty sockets than Jenny.

            "It is the title of the Roivas family, whichever member is currently entangled in the Ancient's affairs." This time it was Maximilian who spoke.  "So in this case, it is a title for any Roivas who has ever lived."

            "Your family has always been involved with the Ancients?  How have you survived this long?  And why aren't all of them recorded in the Book?"

            "It is a marvel to me that the Roivas line survived this long, as well." Dr.  Roivas, who had remained quiet until now, finally spoke up.  "And many of them never knew of the existence of the Tome.  They were merely involved with the Ancients, whether they knew it or not." 

            "But then how can we tell what's happening to Alex?"

            "We cannot.  Not unless we can find her."

            "Can we do that?"

            "Possibly.  But it is probable-in fact, it is most likely-that she will not want to be found.  She jumped out of her own free will, did she not?"

            "So you think she knows what's happening to her?"

            "Yes."

            "Why didn't she tell us?"

            "Because she feared that you would not believe her."

            Colin shrugged, and turned to the last page on the Tome.  Black ribbons of pure Magic danced on the page, half-forming themselves into words, then dispersing before they became intelligible, then beginning their twisting and writhing once again.

            "What is this?"

            The spirits clustered around him, peering over his shoulder, watching the dancing spectral ink.  Looking among them, Jenny thought she could see surprise on the face of Dr. Roivas...but it couldn't be.  An instant later his expression was blank again. 

            "I don't know..."

            "We have never seen this before..."

            "What can this mean?"

            As they gathered around the book, Colin reached out to touch the page.  His fingertips burned where they met the parchment, and he hastily withdrew his hand.

            "Magick." Anthony concluded.  "Pure Magick...like the beginnings of a Spell."

            "I don't see any Runes.  How can it be a Spell?" Jenny looked over Colin's shoulder. 

            "Maybe it's not a Spell."  Colin peered at it closely.  Maybe it's something else..." 

            "Tell me who you are."

            The second Alex shook her head.

            "Why won't you tell me?  I don't know–you *know* I don't know."

            "You know very well who I am, Alexandra Roivas.  We have met before.  You are just trying your very hardest not to see it."

            "Are you telling me that I don't *want* to know who you are?" 

            "Exactly."

            "Why wouldn't I?" She strode forward, confronting her double.  "Why would I not want to know who you are?"

            "I thought you were smart enough to figure it out for yourself, Alex.  Obviously, I was wrong.  Well, it doesn't matter.  You'll discover who I am soon enough, whether you guess it or not."

            "I'm sick and tired of guessing, dammit.  Tell me who you are!" She tried to take another step toward the other her-but something was holding her back.

            "Don't go any nearer to her." Someone whispering in her ear...a female voice, sounding very much like her own...

            "She is dangerous, Alex.  She could kill you whenever she pleases." A male voice this time, again so familiar...yet, as she looked around, there appeared to be no one there but her and her double.

            Were these the ones her double had seen before?

            "Who are you?"

            The voices did not answer.

End Chapter 2 


	3. Words to Paper

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1**Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem: Origins**

**Part 1**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

by Lotus

Disclaimers: Yep, you knew it was coming.  Ahem.  I hereby disclaim what I never had a claim to in the first place, and I beg Silicon Knights on my hands and knees not to sue me, making a complete idiot of myself in the process.  Oh, and one minor note: from this point on, the fanfic will contain some OOC, as I will begin to focus on the original characters.  Sorry.

Chapter 3 Words to Paper 

            _My time is near.  I know it.  I can feel it.  The air itself whispers to me, and I feel its bonds tugging at my mind even now_. 

            _But I cannot.  Not yet.  There is more that needs to be done–questions that even I cannot answer.  Things that the children-and the spirits-need to discover for themselves. _

_              I must wait.  When last I was called, I was unable to help those who called me-unable even to save their fragile lives.  If I cannot help those who still have some hope, what will be the purpose of this waiting?_

_            I cannot know.  Perhaps I will never know.  All I can do is wait._

"I didn't expect to see you again so soon." Dr.  Roivas did not face the two who stood before him.

            "We didn't expect to see you either."

            "Particularly not so soon."

            "We had hoped it would be later."

            "Where have you been all this time?" Even looking into their faces-into their empty eyes-was painful.

            "Wandering..."

            "Just like you..."

            "Like me?"

            "Yes.  All spirits wander, when their bodies pass on.  At least for a while."

            "But we stayed on, much longer than we should have."

            "We knew that the task we had started was not yet completed."

            There was an awkward silence between the three spirits, as though, even through all these years, there was nothing left to be said.

            "We have to go." The first specter said.

            "Alex still needs us.  Otherwise she will fall prey..."

            "Yes." Edward Roivas nodded.  "I understand."

            "We will see each other again soon."

            "At least we hope so."

            The two of them disappeared, leaving only the thinnest ripple in Reality to indicate their change in position.

            It was odd, the doctor thought.  When one died, the body was left behind.  Everything that caused emotion-every nerve and hormone and chemical-was shed with the flesh.

            Then why did he still feel the throttling grip of sorrow all around him?

            For her first night away from her dorm, it wasn't too bad.  It was warm outside, and she had found a fairly out-of-the-way spot to sleep, where no one would wake her up and ask her why she wasn't at school. 

            As Alex drifted off to an uneasy sleep, pictures began to fill her mind, pictures in normal color instead of the grey her world had been bathed in, pictures so clear they seemed more than real. 

            Colin, lying face-down on the earth, bleeding, struggling to breathe, face contorted in pain.  His right arm was severed cleanly from the shoulder, the Runes of half-finished Spells scattered around him, the earth alongside him torn asunder as though from some tremor.

            Standing above him, Jenny, in utter shock, looking in disbelief at her hands, shaking, speechless, eyes unfocused.  Blue haze surrounded her, more uncast Runes faded on the ground.

            Someone was laughing...

            A memory this time, a long-forgotten memory, one that she had worked hard to forget.  Mother and Father, lying in a black ebony box, their burial attire unable to hide their torn skin and ruptured bones. Grandpa, closing his eyes as he closed the coffin...

            Then, another memory, some fifteen years later.  Grandpa's body, in the same ebony box, covered with a shroud so the mourners would not see what had been done to him...her own eyes closing as she lowered the lid, shutting his body away in the dust...

            Someone laughing...mocking her...someone waiting there, just on the edge of perception, waiting to pounce on her should she falter...

            She awoke with a start, breathing hard, trying not to think about the images that had passed through her mind.  She tried to shut her eyes and return to sleep, but the dreams were too vivid–closing her eyes made them reappear.

            "People have become so preoccupied with dreams." The voice beside her spoke.  "I never understood it.  It's as if they think that, if they could only decode their dreams, they would know anything and everything about themselves."

            "What do you think?" Alex stared up at the deep gray sky.  "What do you think dreams are?"

            "I'm in no position to guess.  I never dream.  But...my closest guess would be that human dreams are the projection of the human's subconscious.  They reveal their desires, their fears, their sorrows.  The mind is a painter, the sleeping eye its canvas.  A troubled mind will paint a darker picture."

            Alex did not reply, only rolling over and trying to go back to sleep.

            "Colin, stop casting Spells on it.  You don't know what it'll do."

            "Stop complaining.  I know what I'm doing." Colin didn't look up from the page, as the astral Runes Bankorok, Aretak, and Mantorok faded from sight.

            "No you don't.  You only picked up the thing a few hours ago, and now you're all 'Oh, look at me, I know everything.' Now stop casting Spells on it before you blow it up." 

            "I'm not going to blow it up.  Maybe I need to use a higher Circle..."

            "You don't know that it won't!  For all you know, it very well might do that!" Jenny shuddered suddenly.  "Colin, it's blinking at me again."

            "It can't blink *at* you." Colin again pointed at the page.  "Bankorok Pargon Aretak Pargon Mantorok." the Runes materialized, permeating the air with Magick, and the 'ink' ribbons squirmed like snakes 

              "It's staring at me.  I swear that thing is staring at me.  It's like it's trying to worm a confession out of me.  " She shuddered again.

            "Maybe you're just paranoid.  Tier Pargon Aretak Pargon Mantorok." Again, the spectral ribbons writhed on the page, trying to pull themselves free, but nothing else happened.  "I think I'm getting closer.  The ink's reacting." He motioned for the spirits to come closer, then demonstrated the Spell again.

            "I got the same reaction with the Bind, Summon and Reveal Spells, but none of them had a permanent effect." Colin studied the living page.  "It doesn't make sense."

            "It's as though the page itself absorbs the Spells." Dr. Roivas looked over his shoulder.  "That may be why there is no permanent effect."

            "How can you tell it absorbs them?"

            Jen spoke up from the corner.  "Because if it didn't, we'd all be up to our elbows in Zombies by this point."

            "Ha, ha, ha.  If you don't mind, I'm trying to do something important here.  If you don't feel like helping, at least do something useful like trying to find Alex."

            "I have no idea where to look!  For all we know she could be riding the metro into West Virginia by now."

            "She couldn't get on the metro, Jenny, she doesn't have any money with her." Colin gave the page another once-over, then his face brightened.  "I've got it!" He smiled.  "So simple.  Why didn't I think of it?"

            "What do you plan to do?" The doctor asked as Colin leafed through the Book, searching for the Runes.  "If the Spells you cast do nothing--"

            "I'll use all of them." The boy replied.

            "What?" Many voices in unison answered him.

            "All of them.  I'll use all the runes for all the Spells that worked.  I can't believe I didn't think of this before."

            "You have no idea what that will do." Maximilian warned him.  "I have attempted such Spells.  The Runes refuse to be combined in more than one way."

            "What was I just telling you?" Jenny pushed her way forward.  "If you have to tinker with Magick, experiment on something else."

            He ignored her, a prisoner of his own curiosity.  "Tier Aretak--"

            The black energy on the page twisted, desperate to get free.

            "Bankorok Redgormor Narokath Magormor--"

            It began to react violently, first spreading all across the page like spilled ink, then frantically writhing away. 

            "Pargon."

            The spoken Runes, lit in colorless white, materialized in the air, spiraling into a formless sphere of nebulous confusion.

            "Don't move, Colin." Jenny whispered.  "Whatever you do, just don't move..."

            Sitting dead still in the center of the Rune's amorphous orb, the boy hardly dared turn his eyes to the page.  What had seemed like black ink had taken on a life of it's own, forming half-intelligible words, then snaking across the page, then breaking totally free of it's confines and joining in the Rune's mindless gyration.

            In the midst of the confusion, an invisible hand wrote, in the same spiky, poised writing as was in the rest of the Tome, the beginning of a sentence.

            _But our chronicle does not end here..._

            It had just occurred to her.  She needed money.

            Alex got up and stretched her aching arms and shoulders.  Sleeping on the dirt had been a bad idea.  She'd just have to stay awake until she found somewhere decent to sleep.  Besides, she was a mess-her clothes torn and muddy and covered with grass stains, her hair tangled, her skin cut and bruised from her fall.  She needed a good nights sleep and a shower.  Both of those implied staying a night at a hotel, which meant she would need money. 

            She checked her surroundings.  If she wasn't mistaken, there was a bank about a half a mile from here.  She'd stop there, then check into a hotel for the night.

            Then what?

            When she had jumped out the window, her only thought had been to put as much distance as possible between herself and her friends.  She hadn't thought about what she was going to do afterwards.  The only thing that seemed very productive was interrogating her double, and, frankly, her double was rather uncooperative.

            She'd figure that out once she'd checked in.

            Not checking to see whether her double had followed her, Alex stepped out onto the sidewalk, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. 

            Her mind wandered as she walked, pondering the mystery of her double's identity.  She spoke as though more familiar with the world beyond the Veil than the one within it.  She didn't seem to identify with Alex or with humanity at large.  She acted as though she was something far beyond a human...

            Once again, someone was laughing at her, but it was a different voice this time.  The laughter in her dreams had been high in pitch, feminine, almost rhythmic.  This was different–a masculine voice and a cold, harsh laugh, and a voice she very distinctly recognized.

            She turned her head, ready for almost anything after the events of the day.  But she was not ready for who met her eyes.

            Few noticed the page of the Tome hurriedly writing itself anymore.  All eyes were turned to a woman, not quite ghostly but not corporeal, standing regally beside the Tome.  

            She was rather small, and dressed in robes that were too long for her and trailed on the ground, but she bore herself in an almost queenly manner.  As she turned her head, hollow eyes settling on each of the rooms occupants one by one, one could almost feel her scanning the minds of all those present as a reader scans a book.  Eventually, her gaze came to rest on Colin, who, for once in his life, was absolutely petrified.

            "You are the one who cast the Spell, are you not?" Her contralto voice was firm and even, like that of a judge.

            He nodded, not daring to look away but fearful of meeting her eyes.

            "Well," Her authoritative tone relaxed a bit.  "I suppose I must commend you.  You either must be very knowledgeable or very foolhardy to do that." 

            "I think I'd go with foolhardy, ma'am." Colin's voice became so subdued it was almost a murmur.

            "Hmm. Indeed.  But it is of no consequence.  Do you know what it is that is here before you, boy?" She gestured at the Tome.

            Again Colin nodded.                                       

            "Do you know who I am?"

            This time he shook his head.

            Facing the occupants of the room, the woman addressed her reply to everyone present.

            "My name is Minerva, and I was once--a very, very long time ago–a mortal, just like you." She indicated Colin and Jenny.  "I was a Roman, when Rome was ruled by the first King Tarquin. And I was born-" her face turned stern and angry- "with a Gift that I hated beyond all things."

            "What was that?"  

            "The Gift.  Do you not know of it?"

            Shaking of heads, all in unison.

            "The Gift," Minerva replied.  "Is the ability to see beyond our Reality–the ability to see what is waiting beyond Reality's fragile Veil.  It was almost tangible to me." She ran her hand along the wall.  "I would see what I had always thought to be real in simple gray, as merely a pattern on the unending Veil.  Then, just beyond it, beyond the gray..." She shuddered. 

            "The Ancients?"

            "Yes, the Ancients and worse.  I could hear them, as well.  I could hear them plan out their triumph over one another and the humanity that banished them away behind the Veil over and over again.  And they were gaining power.  They would soon find away to accomplish their ends."

            "Pious Augustus..." Jenny mused.

            "Excuse me?" Minerva turned to her.

            "Pious Augustus.  The Liche.  Did you know him?"

            The ghostly woman shook her head.  "No.  The Liche was after my time.  But I did know that, sooner or later, humanity would be forced to confront the Ancients face-to-face.  I alone could not halt their advance.  But those who came after me had to be warned.  I needed some way to inform them of what they were facing, and of the efforts of those who came before them, or I would have to entrust it to human memory and tradition." Her voice turned sarcastic.  "And we all know how reliable that is.

            "I studied the Magickal arts long and hard, but there was no Spell yet invented to preserve oneself beyond death.  Therefore, I had to trust the task to...a messenger, of sorts."

            She held out one spectral hand, and the Tome snapped shut and hovered obediently toward her.

            "I built, in secret, an Enchanted Tome, that, as the efforts of humanity succeeded or failed, would chronicle them.  Therefore, any who found it would know what they were up against, and what hade been done before their time.  It would also record the means by which one might perform Magick, and so give humanity a greater weapon against the Ancients."

            "You built this Book?" Colin looked at it. "But how did you--"

            Minerva raised a hand for silence.  "Before the Tome was made, I searched out what would become known as the Forbidden City.  I filled it with Mantorok's emissaries, to deter any human who chanced upon it from exploring it, and destroyed all of the entrances except for one, far out in the desert."

            "Why did you not destroy all of them?"

            "Because it could not be done.  The Forbidden City must have at least one entrance to the rest of the world, or it will break off and rupture Reality in a way that could not be repaired.  I also researched all I could of Magick, and recorded the Spells that would be humankind's weapon against the Ancients.  I would have done more, would have learned more of Magick and the Runes, but..." She glanced sideways at the Tome.  "...I did not foresee the cost of constructing this Book."

            "The cost?"

            "Yes.  For the Enchantment on the Tome to be complete and permanent, it needed something more lasting than merely Magick.  It needed living human flesh and bone.

            "It needed to come from a living human, so I could not use the bones of the dead.  And I would not use the flesh of others.  Therefore...I did not have a choice. I Bound myself to the Tome and prayed that I could complete it ere the Binding faded.  The flesh and bone that make up the Tome are mine own."

            Everyone stared at the young lady, then at the Tome, gazing fixedly at them, then back to Minerva, waiting in morbid fascination for more.

            "However, the Binding, which was the only thing keeping me alive, did not hold as long as I hoped it would, and eventually I felt it's Magick begin to wane.  I could not record perhaps the most important thing of all, and the incantations to complete the Tome were cast with my dying breath. The words I never wrote dwelt, incomplete and unfinished, on the final page of the Tome, where you–and others--discovered them."

            Jenny looked up.  Again, there was that look–the subtlest change in Dr. Roivas' expression–but now, again, it was gone.  "What was it you wanted to say?"

            "Shortly after I began my work on the Tome, I was granted a vision.  I foresaw that, far, far into the future, after the fall of the Ancients at the hands of humans–after our first victory against them-they would rise again from their own ashes.

            "And--" She continued, noting the disbelief that settled on the faces of those present, "not only would they rise again, but the Guardian of Light would be powerless to stop them..."

            Alex had expected almost anything when she turned her head, except for what she saw. 

            'What she saw', in question, was what had once been a human but was now a skeletal husk in dark armor.

            "Pious Augustus..."

            "At the risk of sounding terribly cliché, we meet again, Alexandra." The Liche responded. "Pondering the delicious irony of it all?"

            "Irony of what?" If Alex was unnerved by the warlock's words, her tone of voice did not betray it. 

            "I am amazed, Alex.  You seem like a fairly intelligent young lady, and yet you do not know?  I gave you far more credit than you were due."

            "Spare me your invective, Pious.  What are you here for?"

            "I?  I am not here for anything, Alexandra.  I am no longer of this world.  I was merely curious as to whether you had pieced together this puzzle.  Obviously you have not."

            "'Guess this.'  'Figure this out.' Every single one of you is avoiding me and it's pissing me off." She stopped dead in the center of the sidewalk in spite of the other pedestrian's curious glances.  "I want to know what's going on."

            The Liche did not look her in the eye.  "I almost told you outright.  Don't you remember? My death was only the beginning..."

            Alex struggled to keep her voice level.  "I considered it merely a threat."

            "No, no.  I do not make empty threats, Roivas."

            He had fallen to bragging.  Alex turned away.

            "The Darkness still comes, Roivas.  The Darkness still comes and you can do nothing about it..."

            She started.  "What?  What do you mean?"

            "It is simple enough to see.  Do you doubt it?  You have only to look at her to know what I mean..."

            Alex turned to the other her, who was standing silently beside her.  There was a look in her eyes that Alex had not noticed before...Anxious...greedy...hungry...

            Predatory...

            "What are you saying, Pious?"

            But the ghost of the Liche was gone.

            "The Keeper of the Light...you mean Alex, right?" Jenny avoided Minerva's gaze as she avoided the others.

            "I do.  Had she not run away, she might have been able to explain all this to you-you might have been able to do something.  As it is, we have no way of knowing where she is or where she is going."

            "What exactly is happening to Alex, anyway?" Colin finally relaxed.  "She was completely panicked when we saw her last."

            "I do not know, and I have no way of finding out.  Although..."

            "Although what?"

            "There may be some who would know."

            "They are...?" The boy looked up expectantly.

            Minerva ignored him for the moment.  "Edward," she turned to address the doctor "where are the others?  The other two, the ones I saw before?"

            "They are with Alexandra." The doctor's response was unusually short.  Something seemed to be troubling him.

            "Their chapter is not in the Book."

            "It was, at one point.  But Alex never recovered it."

            "Hmm.  A pity.  It would have answered many of her questions." She turned again to Colin.  "There are two others who knew of me, and who might possibly know what is happening to the Keeper.  But...I cannot explain who they are here. You would be better served by finding their page."

            "But their page would still be in the Roivas Manor, wouldn't it?" Colin leafed through the book, searching for the space where the page would be.  

            "Yes.  It would be hidden, but it would be there."

            "But if we're going to find it, doesn't that mean we'd have to go all the way up to Rhode Island?" Jenny asked.  "We can't just leave Alex here while we're hours away, God only knows what would happen to her!"

            "One of us can go," Colin suggested.  "That way, someone could still stay here and look for Alex.  We wouldn't have to leave her alone."

            "There's also the small matter of getting there, Colin.  Do you have enough money for a plane ticket?  I don't, not unless I want to take it out of my college savings, and my mom will skin me alive if I do that."

            "Don't you think this is just a bit more important than your college funds?"

            Minerva cleared her throat impatiently.  "I agree with the boy.  One of you should stay here."

            "I'll go." Jenny volunteered. 

            "That works with me." Colin flipped the book back to the last page.  "That way I'll still be able to take a look at this thing."

            "I'll be taking it with me, Colin." Jenny corrected him.  "Otherwise I won't be able to read the page.  And you wouldn't be poking around at the Tome.  You're trying to find Alex, remember?" She scooped up the Tome and dropped it into a suitcase. 

            "I thought you didn't have the money for a plane ticket."

            "I'm driving, smart guy." Jenny put her car keys in her pocket, then grabbed a few changes of clothes and put them in her suitcase on top of the Tome.

            "Don't forget your phone."

            "I've got it.  I'll let you know when I've found the page." With that, the girl picked up her suitcase and walked out the door.  

End Chapter 3 


	4. En Route

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1**Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem: Origins**

**Part 1**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

by Lotus

Disclaimers: Oy...stupid copyright regulations...I don't own Eternal Darkness or any of the characters or ideas in it.  Goodness knows I'd like to, then I'd actually be able to make the games instead of just writing fanfics...plus, owning Xel'lotath would just be plain old cool. Many thanks to Tanbo for his reviews!  Also, I'd like to give due credit to CyricZ, as the descriptions I'm using for...well, something...came from his FAQs.  Thanks a bunch.

Chapter 4 En Route 

            _What am I doing?_

_            _Exactly what you are supposed to be doing__

_            But what am I supposed to be doing?_

_            _Serving your purpose__

_            What is that purpose?_

_            _You will know your purpose__

_            I want to know it _now_._

_            _Why are you so impatient?__ Many have waited long, sleeping in the shadows, for millennia upon millennia__Is it so hard to wait perhaps a few weeks?__

_            It is torture.  I must know._

_            _Tortured by your own impatience__how curious__something I had not foreseen_  _

            The other Alex hadn't spoken for almost a half-hour now, content, it seemed, to walk silently behind her.  It was starting to bother her. 

            The bank was nearly empty today.  Good.  She didn't want to have to answer the questioning looks of a hundred different people today. 

            Alex stopped outside the bank, using the polished walls to make a last attempt at fixing her hair.  She looked more ragged than she'd thought–her clothes were ripped and had dirt ground into them and her hair was an unkempt, tangled mess. _I must look like some sort of hobo, _she thought to herself.

            Pulling open the heavy glass doors, Alex stepped up to the nearest available teller.  "I'd like to make a withdrawal, please."

            She let her mind wander for a minute, only half-focusing on her transaction.  After she checked in, what was she going to do?  Take a shower, first off, and then probably get something to eat.  Then what?

            "Thank you, miss." The teller said, handing her the money. "Have a nice day."

            "Thank you.  You too." She answered automatically, turning to leave.  As soon as she turned around, in spite of everyone else in the bank staring at her, she froze in mid-step. 

            Staring back at her, almost lazily, was an eye.  A single eye, deep green and so big as to occupy the entire area in front of it, was looking at her with half-interest, almost apathy. 

            "Who...?"

            She turned around, searching for a way out.  Her double was standing calmly behind her, returning the eye's gaze.  Again, that hungry, desperate look crossed her face...

            "Miss?  Miss, are you alright?"

            The teller's words jolted her out of the vision.  The world was returned to the monotonous gray, and the eye was gone.

            "Yes.  Yes, I'm fine." She shook her head.  "Just a headache.  I'm sorry." Walking quickly and trying to attract as little attention as possible, she rushed out the door.   

            "Damn car, damn traffic light, damn pileup, damn Beltway!" Jenny pounded a fist on the dashboard.  "Of all the times for there to be a massive backup, it has to be *now*." She slumped back into her seat.  The line of cars hadn't moved for at least twenty minutes, and she wasn't even out of D.C. yet.  At this rate it would be days before she got anywhere near Rhode Island.

            Out of sheer boredom more that anything else, Jenny picked up her phone and dialed Colin's cell phone. After four rings, Colin finally picked up.

            "Are you there yet?"

            Jenny rolled her eyes.  "Colin, really.  I'm not even out of D.C. There's this giant pileup on the Beltway, it'll be a while before I get anywhere."

                        "Oh.  So, what are you calling me for?"

            "I dunno.  Boredom, I guess.  Have you found Alex?"

            "No."

            "Have you *looked*?"

            "Yes!" Colin's voice became suddenly defensive.

            "Okay, okay, I was just making sure, don't need to yell at me." Jenny glanced up and the line of automobiles before her in the dim hope that maybe it had moved.  No such luck.  She went back to her conversation.

            "Do you have any small idea where she might--"

            _Thump._

            Something struck her car, sending her spinning into the shoulder.  The cars next to her pulled away in a hurry, braking and accelerating and scattering in whatever direction they could manage, all while beeping angrily at her.

            "Jenny, what was that?"

            "I don't know.  Something hit me." She got out to look at her car.  The hood had been struck hard by something; it had caved in and the metal had folded like fabric.

            "Something big, apparently."

            More honks from the other cars.  Jenny looked up at the mass of traffic and found that, all of a sudden, every car on the road was tearing forward as fast and as far as it possibly could, disregarding other drivers and beeping at anyone in their way.

            "Weird.  It's like everyone's brakes are broken." She turned around to see if the rest of her car was damaged, and found, instead, the source of all the panic.

            Something–that was the only way to describe it, _something_–was hoping from car to car.  It resembled three human bodies, fused at the abdomen, one with legs, and the other two with arms, but without anything resembling a head.  She vaguely recognized it from her unconscious nightmares.

            A Guardian of Xel'lotath was making it's way through the traffic.

            "Jenny?  Jen, what's wrong?  Jen, why'd you go all quiet all of a sudden?"

            "You're not going to believe me."

            "Jen, think about what has happened to us in the past day or two.  I'll believe you."

            "There's a Guardian of Xel'lotath on the Beltway."

            "On the road?  In broad daylight?"

            "Leaping over the cars, no less."

            "Shit.  Jenny, shoot it."

            "I don't have a gun."

            "Do you have any weapon of any kind?"

            "No."

            "More shit.  Get back in the car, you're safer in there."

            Jenny obeyed without hesitation.  "What do I do?"

            "Drive like hell is what you do.  Go!"

            Stamping hard on the gas pedal, Jenny wove in an out of the traffic, trying to put as much distance between herself and the Guardian as possible.  The Guardian had other ideas.  Taking a flying leap over a row of cars, it landed squarely on her roof, driving the metal closer to the frantic drivers head.

            "Colin, that thing is on top of my car!"

            "So attack it!" 

            "With what?"

  


            "Okay, Jenny, repeat after me.  Antorbok Redgormor Chattur'gha."

            "What?  What does that do?"

            "Just do it!"

            Realization dawned on Jenny.  "Oooooh...." Keeping one foot firmly on the gas pedal, Jenny pointed upward at the Guardian, which was beginning to work it's way through her ceiling.

            "Antorbok Pargon Redgormor Pargon Chattur'gha."

            The lightning of the Magickal Attack struck the Guardian, and it swerved and left her roof.

            "Okay, now drive, girl.  Drive like there's no tomorrow."

            Jenny, instead, turned the car 180E and hit the brakes.

            "What are you doing?" Colin's voice asked.  He must have heard the sound of the brakes.

            "If that thing's still alive, it'll still follow me.  Just attacking it doesn't solve anything."

            "So what are you going to do?  Beat it to death with a windshield wiper?"            

            "Actually, that's not an entirely bad idea, but I have something better." Jenny pulled the steering wheel lock out from under her seat.  "I'll get back to you, okay, Colin?"

            "You're crazy."

            "You're probably right about that."

            Alex sighed with relief.  After jumping out a window and sleeping on concrete, taking a steaming hot shower had felt really, really nice.

            Her next order of business, she decided, was to buy a change of clothes.  She had put her clothes in the hotel coin-op, but that meant that until they were done, she was going to have to walk around in nothing but a bath towel.  Her double was fixing her hair in front of the mirror, in spite of the small problem of her not having a reflection.

            "How does that work?" She asked of her duplicate.  "What's the point of standing in front of a mirror if you don't have a reflection?"

            The other her shrugged.  "I do have a reflection, Alex.  Just not one that you can see, apparently.  The light is reflected, but since the light is Within, reflecting something that exists Beyond, even it's residual image is invisible to you.  Curious, isn't it?  How physics adjusts itself to accommodate the Veil?"

            "Then how come I can't see your reflection, but I can see you?"

            Again she shrugged.  "I don't know.  Maybe you can see me–and therefore, the light Within reflecting off me–but you can't see the secondhand image, i.e. the reflection." She continued adjusting her hair.

            "If you say so." Alex sat down on the bed and grabbed the TV remote.  "I'm going to watch TV until my clothes are done." She announced to no-one in particular as she hit the 'Power' button.  Whoever had occupied the room last had been fond of the news, as that was the first channel that appeared onscreen.  A female announcer's voice spoke the latest-breaking news development.  Alex was about to change the channel when she heard something very interesting.

            "In other news, traffic is in chaos on the Beltway.  Commuters are totally disregarding all traffic laws and merely trying to evacuate.  While the cause of this behavior is unknown, some have attributed it to the alleged appearance of what witnesses describe as an unidentified animal of some sort."

            Alex snapped to attention, staring intently at the screen.  The image of the newscaster had been replaced by a blurry, shaky amateur video, obviously taken on the side of the road.  It showed the thickly packed cars racing every which way.  Leaping on top of them, like a grasshopper, was a creature that was instantly recognizable to Alex, however fuzzy the image of it was.

            "My God, there's a Xel'lotath Guardian right there in the middle of the Beltway..." 

            The Guardian began to pry apart the roof of the car it was currently on top of–she couldn't tell exactly what car it was, as the view of it was blocked by other cars.  Magickal lightning struck it from nowhere, and the Guardian dropped onto the road, where oncoming traffic parted around it like the Red Sea.  The car on which the Guardian had been riding did a 180 and stopped–

            Alex gasped.  The car was a black Mini Cooper.  Jenny's car.

            Almost on instinct she reached for the phone.  If Jenny was out there, heaven only knew what the Guardian had done to her.  

            The car in the video stopped, and the driver's-side door came open...and then the video cut off. 

            "Authorities have not arrived on the scene yet and have no explanation for this appearance." The reporter concluded.

            _Please show the video again, please show the video again..._ Alex begged inside her mind.

            "The stock market closed on a high note today, with the Dow up 20 points..."

            Alex swore under her breath.  She'd have to call her dorm if she wanted to find out if Jenny was okay, and her dorm phone had Caller ID.  She didn't want Colin or Jenny, or anybody for that matter, to know where she was.

            Oh well.  Alex dialed the number for her dorm room.  She'd just have to risk it.  The phone rang only once before Colin's frantic voice greeted her.

            "Jenny?  Are you okay?"

            "Colin?"

            A pause.  "Alex?"

            "Hi, Colin."

            "Alex, where are you?  We lost track of you after you jumped out the window."

            Alex avoided his question.  "What's happened to Jenny?"

            "She was on her way to the Roivas Manor, and--"

            "What was she doing there?"

            "She was going to look for a page that Minerva said we missed–but anyway, she--" Colin blurted out, unaware of himself.

            "She's looking for _what_?"

            "Oh, crap." Colin muttered.

            "Colin, what did you say?" Alex's voice was like a stone-level and cold.

            "Nothing."

            "Colin, you're a terrible liar. What did you..." Suddenly, the words he had hastily spoken began to make sense. 

            "Colin, you read from the Tome, didn't you?"

            His next word was spoken so quietly as to be unintelligible.

            "Did you?"

            "Guilty as charged."

            Alex wanted to scream, laugh, and kick herself all at the same time.  Stupid, stupid, wonderful Colin.  She had been acting strangely, so of course Colin would try to find out what was wrong, even if that meant going through what she had kept hidden from him.  She should've figured this would happen, this was all her fault, she should've left the Tome in the Manor...

            "Alex?  You still there?"

            "Yes, I'm still here." She kept her voice as unemotional as possible. 

            "Alex, I didn't mean to.  I just got worried about you and I wanted to know what was wrong--"

            "So you poked around in my safe?  Colin, do you have even the slightest idea what you've gotten yourself into?"

            "I do now..."

            "Colin, this is serious.  This is more serious than you can possibly imagine.  I ran away because I didn't want you to get involved in this, Colin, couldn't you figure that out?"

            "That reminds me.  Where are you?"

            Again, Alex avoided the question.  "Does Jenny know about it too?"

            "Yes.  She does."

            "Why is she going to the Manor?"

                        "Because, supposedly, there's a page you missed.  She's going to go find it."

            "All alone?"

            "I was supposed to stay here and look for you."

            "Does she have the Tome with her?"

            "Yes.  She said she wouldn't be able to read the page without the Tome.  Although frankly, I think she's got other things on her mind right now."

            "I know.  I saw it on the news.  Is she okay?"

            "I don't know."

            "Can you find out?"

            "No."

            Jenny had to admit, she was doing better than she thought she'd do.  She wasn't dead yet, at least.  Or missing any limbs or vital organs.  It really was amazing what one could do with an Enchanted steering wheel lock and a few well placed incantations.

            The Guardian struck at her again, repelled by the Runic confines of the Field.  Jenny stabbed at what she estimated would be it's face if it had one, and the creature reeled back. 

            "Antorbok Pargon Redgormor Pargon Chattur'gha" Jenny pointed at the beast again, and the crimson-colored Magick paralyzed it momentarily.  The girl ventured out of the Field's protective confines and raised her makeshift weapon.  The Guardian stirred, but could not move in time, and it let out a dying cry as it was transfixed straight through it's center.

            Jenny sighed with relief.  Hopefully that was the only one; she may have killed this one, but she doubted that she could hold off many more than that.

            She heard the sirens of police cars in the distance and cursed silently.  The media–not to mention the police department–would have a field day if they found the carcass of a Xel'lotath Guardian in the middle of the street. 

            She ducked back into her long-suffering Mini Cooper, out of sight of the commuters, muttering "Tier Aretak Chattur'gha" under her breath.

            The Trapper skittered across the pavement, largely ignored by the confused commuters.  A moment later the body of the Guardian had vanished from sight.

            _Crack_.

            The phone dropped from Colin's hand, it's pieces coming apart as it hit the floor.

            "What is wrong, Colin?" Minerva turned to him.

            The boy had his head in his hands, his eyes squinted shut, his breathing growing rapid.  He sank to his knees, letting out a low moan of pain. 

            "Colin?" 

            He tried to open his eyes, but his vision swam in a haze of red.  Vertigo overtook him, and his legs gave way.  The pain in his head had spread like a cancer; his whole body was aching.

            "Colin, answer me!"

            He opened his mouth to speak, but his vocal chords refused to produce the sounds.  It was becoming harder to breathe...

            "Colin!"

            The Trapper, still unnoticed, scurried back to Jenny's car.  It snapped to attention, then collapsed in a heap on the pavement as the effects of the Summoning waned.  Avoiding the eyes of the people around her, Jenny ducked out of her car and gingerly picked up the carcass of the Trapper, shuddering involuntarily as she did so.  The creature's exoskeleton was cold as ice, and its limp tail still twitched on occasion.  It was like picking up an oversized scorpion.  Dumping it unceremoniously in the back seat, she climbed back into the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition.  

            He gasped, letting in sweet, precious air.  The throbbing in his head and the ache in his body had suddenly subsided.

            "Colin, what happened?" The concerned faces of the ghosts looked down on him.  "What is wrong?"

            "I don't know." He gasped.  "All of a sudden my head started hurting, and then..."

            "Colin?  Colin, are you still there?" Miraculously, the phone was still working, in spite of the drop and subsequent impact.

            He picked up the phone, massaging his aching head.  "Yeah. Yeah, I'm still here."

            "Colin, what happened?  You just stopped talking all of a sudden..."

            "I don't know.  My whole body started hurting all of a sudden...I don't know what happened."

            "Did you get a hold of Jen yet?"            

            It was at that moment that his cell phone rang.

            "That might be her right now.  Let me go check." He picked up his cell phone and pushed 'Talk'.  "Hello?"

            "Hey Colin."

            "Jenny?  Are you okay?"

            "Couldn't be better.  The Guardian's dead."

            "Wait a minute.  How did you do that?  You didn't have a weapon."

            "I had my steering wheel lock."

            Colin was silent for a moment.  "You beat a Guardian to death with a *steering wheel lock*?"

            "Well, it was the only weapon I had.  And I Enchanted it, if it makes you feel any better."

            "You Enchanted a..." Colin sighed.  "Forget it.  Get out of there, I don't want to know what the police will do when they find the body of a Guardian on the street."

            "They won't find it, Colin.  I Summoned a Trapper."

            "Oh.  Good thinking, Jen."

            "Thanks.  Any sign of Alex yet?"

            "As a matter of fact," Colin picked up the room phone, "She's on the phone right now." 

            "What?" Alex's voice from the phone protested.  "Colin, don't tell her that!"

            "Alex?  Where are you?"

            Again Alex had to dodge the question. "Are you all right?"

            "Yeah, I'm fine.  Are you?"

            "I guess so."

            "Where are you?"

            "Jenny, did I answer that last question the last time you asked it?"

            "No."

            "Do you think that asking it again is going to do anything?"

            "No."

            There was silence between the two for a moment.

            "Can I ask you a different question?"

            "Sure."

            "Why won't you tell us where you are?"

            _Click._

            "Alex?"

            There was nothing on the other end of the line but a dial tone.

            "Colin, she hung up." Jenny sighed. 

            "Here, I'll call her back."

            "Don't bother.  She doesn't want us too.  Listen, I'm going to stop at an auto body shop or something, my car's a mess.  I'll call you later." Turning left onto the nearest exit, Jenny pushed the 'Off' button and dropped her cell phone in the passenger's seat.

            __It seems my efforts have not gone unnoticed__

_            Did you expect them to?_

_            _I suppose they would not, at least not for long__No matter, though__Soon I will have what I need__The others move slowly, as always___

_            Has this happened before?_

_            _It will not happen again__

_            If you get what you want, will I know who I am?_

_            _Possibly_ _

_            How long will that take?_

_            _I do not know__

_            I hope it's soon..._

_            _It will be soon__It will be very soon__If you serve your purpose, it will be very soon indeed__

_            But what is that purpose?  Why won't you tell me?_

_            _You already know__

End Chapter 4 


	5. Missing Page

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1**Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem: Origins**

**Part 1**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

by Lotus

Disclaimers: You know, after a couple of chapters, it gets *really* hard to think up amusing disclaimers.  Ahem.  Don't own Eternal Darkness, don't own the Roivas family, don't own the Ancients, however cool that would be, don't own the Tome, don't own Mini Coopers, etc. etc. etc.

Author's Note: I just realized something...Alex doesn't go to college in Washington D.C., she goes to college in Washington *State*!! slaps self on forehead Silly me!  That would explain why she had to *fly* to Rhode Island....I'm an idiot...Well, I'm much more familiar with D.C. than Washington State, so, for the moment, logic will be suspended and Alex will live in D.C. Sorry...^_^

Chapter 5 Missing Page 

            _Has it happened yet?_

_            _Patience__It will not be complete for a while__

_            How long will it take?_

_            _No one can know__not even me__

_            I cannot wait any longer._

_            _Why this desperation?__It will happen eventually__

_            Why can't it happen now?_

_            _Ah__You seek the answer, do you not?__

_            I do. _

_            _You may not find it, even when it is complete__

_            But I won't know that until it happens, will I?_

_            _True__

_            So why not start now?_

            Roivas Manor was so huge it was almost threatening.

            Still, Jen thought, pulling into the driveway, it sort of fit for the old mansion to be intimidating, considering what it was built on top of. Hurriedly banishing the images of the house's history from her mind, Jenny parked the car, got out, and walked to the double doors.

            Momentarily, she wondered how she was going to get in. After all, if no one had been here since Alex left, the doors should be locked.

            She turned the knob anyway, and the doors slid open without making a noise.

            The silence that greeted her within the mansion made her uneasy. There was no noise in the whole of the house, at least not that she could hear. The lack of noise was almost expectant, as though the whole mansion was waiting for some misshapen monster to burst in from nowhere and shatter the peace.

            "Hmm..." Jenny mused to herself, desperate to break the silence. "If I were a page of the Tome of Eternal Darkness, where would I hide?"

            _If I were a page of the Tome_, she thought to herself, _I'd be sitting in the Book, quietly pretending I didn't exist._

            Humming to herself to keep the noiselessness from crushing her, Jenny scanned the house. There didn't seem to be anywhere left for a page to hide. Not knowing where to start, she closed her eyes and pointed in a random direction. 

            The dining room. Seemed a reasonable place to start.

            The old dining room had not seen use for some time. The hand-carved tables were coated by a thin layer of gray dust, and long-spent ashes were all that remained in the fireplace.

            _Fireplace._ For some reason that stuck in her mind. There was something about the fireplace–something important–but she couldn't quite remember what it was.

            Flipping through the Tome, her eyes came to rest on Maximilian's chapter. Ah, yes. The dining room fireplace. When Maximilian had explored the house, there had been a secret room behind this fireplace. Surely it was still there–even in this haunted house, she was pretty sure that rooms didn't arbitrarily disappear.

            Again she skimmed the Tome, checking to see if Alex or Dr. Roivas had happened upon this secret room. Apparently, this chamber had been forgotten since Maximilian discovered it. 

            She bent down and checked the fireplace. Apparently there was nothing there but the cold, white stone at the back. There was no obvious way in. Getting on her hands and knees, she ran her fingers along the base of the fireplace, where the floor met the back wall.

            Aha. A tiny space–very small, but still present–between the two slabs of stone. Yes, the secret room was definitely still there–and possibly still accessible, if she'd thought to bring a crowbar. Unfortunately, she was quite sure that she did not have a crowbar, nor did she have any way to get one. And the Roivas family was mostly comprised of doctors and scholars. They were unlikely to have a crowbar lying around. 

            She again checked Maximilian's chapter. When he had been here, there had been four tiles here, as well as a sculpture. The inscription had told him to place the sculpture in front of the tile that had shown the symbol of "The Master's greatest enemy"–the Ancient that could defeat Pious' master. 

            No tiles, no Pious, no Master. Jenny was in a bit of a situation.

            She got up from the fireplace and dusted he ashes off of her jeans. Unless she found a way to Magickally procure sticks of dynamite, there was no way she could get into the secret room. Might as well go search somewhere else.

            Leaving the dining room, Jenny aimlessly meandered the halls of the mansion. Were there any other secret nooks and crannies in the walls that Alex hadn't spotted? She flipped through the three chapters again, looking for any secrets the three Roivas' had not discovered. If there were any, the Tome did not mention them. She was on her own.

            Alex's nightmares had only  been getting worse.

            As she tossed and turned in her restless sleep, the pictures that her troubled mind painted on her closed eyelids came violently to life. Mostly they were memories, bits and pieces of memories jumbled together with nightmarish unrealities like a collage.

            In her mind she would enter the old mansion and walk through the empty rooms, taunted by the whispering voices that called to her with every step. She would open a door and find Grandpa's body, covered by the bloody shroud. As she turned away from the sight, she would see, in the room across the hall, a sight that she wished she didn't remember.

            Her parent's bodies would lay uncovered on the floor, as though they had come all the way from their resting place to join Grandfather's corpse. They would look newly dead, their blood still warm on the floor, lifeless eyes staring at her, pleading her. 

            She would turn to run away, shutting in the scent of death and decay and, in her parent's case, newly burned flesh. As she ran, she would sense–not even see, just _sense_–someone, or something, reaching out for her, grabbing at her, hungry to tear her, break her body, devour her, taste her blood.

            Panicked, she reached for the doorknob, desperate to flee the house. Just as her hand met the cool metal, something pulled her back, something that mocked her with a cacophony of voices, laughing almost joyously as she cried out in shock and clutched at whatever was nearest to her. Some of the voices laughed, some of them whispered, some of them echoed her screams.

            At last they would release her, and she would get back on her feet, only to find herself in a place she did not recognize. The place was pitch black, but slowly, as she wandered through it, a light began to shine at it's center; a chaotic, swirling blue nova, endlessly collapsing in on itself and pulling everything in this empty, dead universe toward it like a black hole.

            She saw the epicenter too late to turn around. She began to walk away from it, but the inward winds grew stronger and harder to resist. She ran, but it drew her toward itself, pulling her toward it as the voices had done.  No matter how she struggled she was slowly, inexorably being pulled into that glowing, nebulous hell.

            The laughter rang, omnipresent, in her ears...

            At this she would wake, clutching her sheets like a lifeline, staring at the ceiling, damp with cold sweat.  She would turn around, trying to calm herself, and see her double standing at the window, looking out at the city below.

            If she was looking at the picture correctly--and she knew she was–there was something underneath the staircase.

            Jenny had little reason to think so.  After all, there was no door, and the wall to the left of the basement door sounded solid enough.  But, leafing through the Tome, she had found a rough schematic of the painting in the hallway, the one that had informed Maximilian of the hidden doorway.  Looking closely at it, she had noticed that the stairway wall seemed...missing.  There was no other way to put it.  It just didn't look like it was there anymore.  

            She had examined the picture skeptically for a while.  The wall couldn't just not be there.  It had to be a trick of the light, or something about the way it was painted.  But, upon closer examination, it became clear that, according to the painting, the stairway wall was not there.

            She reached out to touch the wall.  It was cool and smooth and dusty under her hand, and it was most definitely solid.  She lightly tapped on it.  A few dust motes flew into the air, but nothing else happened.  Maybe she was on the wrong track.  Maybe this was just another wall.

            Still.  It couldn't hurt to check.

            The Runes of the Reveal Invisible spell formed in midair, and the whole mansion grew dense with colored fog.

            At that moment, something happened. 

            It was hard to tell exactly what had happened.  All Jenny could tell was that she was most definitely not in the Roivas Manor anymore.  She wasn't sure where she was.  All around her was empty blackness, with pure white stars winking far in the distance.

            She was floating, floating through space.  Anonymous planets flew past her; nameless giants orbiting stars as yet undiscovered by man.  The cold darkness of space was suddenly offset by the light streaming from a milky galaxy.

            Someone was whispering to her...there were voices, hundreds of voices, all whispering in her ear...whispering to her the laws of space and time and Magick...the solutions to all of the unsolved equations of physics and space and the mysteries that humanity had pondered for centuries...something was, in a voice that she strained to hear, telling her the meaning and the purpose and the workings of _everything_...

            And then it stopped, as suddenly as it began.

            Jenny looked around in confusion.  She was back in Roivas Manor again, staring at a wall and feeling like an idiot.  The vast, dark reaches of the cosmos were gone, at least from her vision, but the image remained firmly in her mind's eye. 

            For an instant, for the tiniest fraction of an instant, she had known everything...

            Shaking off the momentary hallucination, Jenny reached out to touch the wall.  To her surprise, her hand slid through it, as though there was nothing there but empty air.  Smiling to herself, she took a step through the wall and found herself in the tiniest of rooms.  It looked as though it had never been entered, never even been thought of, until now.  It was a bare, sparse room: no decoration of any kind, no furnishment, no nothing.  There was merely the aged, warped floorboards, the mildew growing in the cracks between the planks, and the gossamer curtains of cobwebs.  In the center of the room–if it could be called a room, it was more like an overlarge box–was it's only other occupants; a small purple tile with the Rune of Mantorok engraved on it and a black raven statuette.

            The process had been simple enough.  All she had to do was place the tile on the mantel and put the statue in front of it.  There was no longer one Master, so the statue had to stand before the enemy of them all. 

            The fireplace had obligatorily opened up, revealing a doorway in the back.  The fireplace was lower than it looked; Jenny had to crawl on her stomach army-style to enter it. 

            On the other side of the fireplace was a small room, though not nearly as tiny as the box-room under the stairs.  It was cluttered with miscellaneous boxes, bookshelves–the motto of the Roivas family seemed to be 'When in doubt, add a bookshelf'–and papers, and the odd painting or artifact was hung on the wall.  There were two weapon stands nailed to the wall, but they were empty, their occupants removed. 

            However, on the table was what Jenny had come here for.  A single page, crammed with writing, on aged, yellowed paper.  Jenny took a seat, opened up the Tome, and began to read.

            "A Generation in the Darkness," She read the title, then moved on to the written prologue. "Perhaps we could not help coming across the Tome; after all, we too bore that cursed name Roivas.  Perhaps it was fate that led us to the study...but no, that cannot be.  Fate is nothing but a device invented by man to give himself a scapegoat for his own troubles...no, the Roivas family merely has a long and illustrious history of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..."

*-*-*

            Three loud, clear knocks at the front door brought Edward Roivas sharply out of his literary reverie.

            Putting down his book on a nearby coffee table, Edward opened the front door–and a four-year-old cannonball hit him in the stomach.

            "Hi Grandpa!" The little girl looked up at him with a big grin.

            He laughed.  His granddaughter's enthusiasm never failed to be amusing.  "Hello, Alex." He picked her up around the waist and held her at eye level.  "You just keep getting taller every time I see you, do you know that?"

            She nodded.  "Did'ja miss me?"

            "Of course.  Did you miss me?"

            "Uh huh."

            Okay, Alex." His son's voice, sounding apologetic.  "Come on, get off before you break Grandpa's back." The young man took his child in his arms.

            Jonathan Roivas had inherited most of his looks from his mother, from his mess of dark curls to his height–he was a bit short for his age–to his features; he had what in some circles might be called a baby face.  In fact, Edward thought, just about the only thing Jonathan got from him was farsightedness.

            "Hi, Dad.  Sorry about that."

            "I don't mind at all.  Where's Anna?"

            "She's getting the luggage out of the car."

            "You made your wife get the luggage all by yourself?" Edward gave his son a faux-critical look.

            "She volunteered for it." Jonathan apologized.  "Alex, go up to your room and wait for Mommy, okay?"

            Alex nodded, then bounded up the stairs and opened the door at the top, disappearing into the second floor.

            "So," Jonathan asked, trying to make conversation.  "What have you been doing lately?"

            "Jonathan, what have I been doing every day for the past three years?"

            "Sitting at home all day, reading and occasionally going outside?"

            "Exactly." 

            His son rolled his eyes.  "Dad, it's okay to occasionally have contact with people other than us.  Ever since Mom died, you've just shut yourself up in this old house...don't you ever get lonely?"

            "Occasionally." Edward's expression switched to number 37–totally neutral.  Edward had many expressions, and his son had learned and labeled them all, from no.1, 'Nice to see you,' to no.49, 'You are in very, very deep trouble, young man,' to no. 287, 'Yes, Jonathan, I _can_ read your mind'.  

            At that moment, Anna, laden with three overstuffed black duffel bags on the verge of bursting their seams, entered the house.

            "Phew!" She exclaimed, dropping the duffel bags, which hit the ground with a sound like a sonic boom.  "Really, it's amazing how much stuff one four-year-old needs."

            As far as physical appearances were concerned, Anna Roivas couldn't be more different from her spouse.  Stick-straight blonde hair cut in a chin-length bob made her look like a very out-of-place 20's flapper.  She was a few inches taller than her husband and she stood ramrod straight.  She was the sort of woman who would have looked perfectly natural in a business suit. 

            "Hello, Anna.  How's Daughter-in-Law?"

            "Daughter-in-Law is fine.  How is Father-in-Law?"

            "Father-in-Law is fine as well." He laughed again.  He was glad his son had married Anna; she was a pleasant young lady, and one of the few people who reliably made him laugh.  That, and she reminded him of his wife...

            Jonathan rolled his eyes again, this time in good humor, and grabbed one of the duffels.  "I don't understand you two." He sighed, walking up the stairs.

            "You just have no sense of humor, Jonathan." Anna shot back.

            "I ask you only one thing, Jonathan.  Did anyone even think to fix this clock?"

            "Hmm?" Jonathan looked up from his book.

            "This clock." His wife looked very irritated.  "It hasn't moved from one o' clock since we got here.  Has anyone even considered getting it fixed?"

            Her husband sat back in the armchair, adjusted his reading glasses, and turned the page of his book.  He would never know why, but little things like this–stopped clocks, single earrings, out-of-order encyclopedias–bothered Anna to no end.  She was just like Mom in that respect.  "No, Anna, noone's fixed the clock.  Maybe Dad likes it that way."

            Why would he want a stopped clock?  I mean, what's the point of even owning a clock if it's not going to tell time?" She looked around the back of the clock.  "Let me see if I can fix it..."

            Jonathan sighed, getting up from his chair and putting the book back on the shelf.  "If it upsets you so much, we can call someone to get it fixed.  Honestly, you're so obsessive-compulsive about these things.  I should let Dad analyze you, he'd have a field day..."

            She ignored him.  "Let's see, what time is it now?" She checked her watch.  "2:33?  Okay..." She spun the hands of the clock until they represented the current time.  "Now, let's have a look..." Blindly feeling around the gears of the clock, she adjusted the first thing she touched.

            The hour hand moved forward.  The clock now read 3:33.

            "Well, no *wonder* it doesn't work." Anna concluded.  "It's got pieces missing."

            "Anna..."

            "Yes, Jonathan, I know I'm being picky.  I'm sorry, I can't help it.  You know things like this bother me."

            "Anna, that's not what I meant..."

            "I wonder if I could buy the missing pieces somewhere..."

            "Anna, look up from the damn clock!" Her husband's voice had risen to a shout.  Anna obeyed, and froze upon seeing what Jonathan had discovered.

            The bookcase that he was standing in front of had opened up, revealing a narrow passageway.

            "What the hell?"

            "My thoughts exactly." Her husband backed away from the passage.

            "Does your dad know about this?" 

            "I don't know.  He never said anything about it before."

            Anna took a peek inside.  A narrow hallway opened up into a mid-sized room behind the bookshelves.  Curious, she stepped into the hallway, squinting through the darkness to the lit room at the end. 

            "There's not much in here." She said.  "Jonathan, you can come in now." 

            Her husband looked around the little room, and his eyes came to rest on the sword mounted on the wall.  "Wow..." He took it carefully off it's stand and examined it.  "Anna, this has to be at least two hundred years old, and look at the condition it's in!  Do you have any idea how much this is worth?"

            Anna, however, had other things on her mind.  She had walked over to the table, noticing the large, heavy book on top of it.  Hesitantly, she picked it up, then dropped it in surprise.

            The book had blinked.

            "Jonathan?" She motioned for her husband to come closer.  "C'mere.  Take a look at this."

            "What is it?" He put the sword back on it's stand.

            "This book.  There's something weird about it." She gingerly poked the cover with one finger.  "It doesn't feel right."

            "What do you mean, 'It doesn't feel right'?" He ran his hand over the cover.  "Yeah, you're right.  That's some weird leather."

            "I don't think it's leather."

            "What else could it be?" He inspected the book.  "Have you read it yet?"

            "Not yet." She opened it and read he words aloud.  "'The Procession of Flesh and Bone.' That's kind of an odd title.  'Herein is contained a history, a history that spans all the centuries of civilizations, a history that is even now being written and becoming the present.  But this is not the history of one individual, nor even of a family of individuals.  It is a history of many, many Chosen, from across the seemingly impenetrable reaches of space and time, and of those who lie Beyond, whom the eyes of mortals were never meant to see. Like it or not, believe it or not as you will.  Your perceptions will not change reality, but merely color it.'" Anna pored over the book.  "Well, this is the strangest thing I've ever seen."

            "No kidding." He leaned in closer to view the text.  "Here's no title, no author, no nothing.  I wonder where it came from...keep reading."

            "Chapter 1: The Chosen One. 'To think that once I could not see beyond the Veil of our reality...to see those who dwell beyond.  My life has purpose, for I have learned the frailty of flesh and bone...I was once a fool...' 'In the days of the dawn of the Roman Empire, there lived a centurion by the name of Pious Augustus...'"

            "You know, somehow Dad never struck me as the slaying-the-undead type.  And he certainly never told me there was a Vampire in this house."

            "It's not the type of thing you go around telling people.  Besides, would you have believed him?"  Flipping through the remainder of the Tome, Anna found nothing but blank pages waiting for words.  "I guess that's the last chapter."

            "Doesn't it seem like it's waiting?" Jonathan asked, turning empty page after empty page. "Like it's hungry to have these pages filled?"

            "Yeah, it does." She shifted uncomfortably.  Shaking off the feeling, she flipped to the last page and stopped.  "What is that?"

            On the last page was what looked like animated black ink., which twisted frantically about on the brink of forming words, then scattered and dispersed.

            "I don't know.  Maybe it's a chapter being written."

            "On the last page?"

            "Possibly."

            "But it's not forming words.  Look, as soon as it gets close to saying anything, it falls apart.  It's like the enchantment's not strong enough." Anna squinted at the page.  "What do you think it's trying to say?"

            "I can't tell." Jonathan adjusted his glasses.  "It's too fuzzy." He reached out to touch the page, but quickly withdrew his hand as soon as his skin came in contact with the parchment.  "Did you say it looked like the enchantment was week?"

            "Yeah, what about it?"

            "Do you think the words would stay in place if we Enchanted it?"

            "No, that..." Anna paused.  "Actually, Jonathan, that's a pretty good idea." She pointed at the page.  "Magormor Antorbok Mantorok"

            The Runes appeared, glowed, then disappeared.  For a brief instant in time, the pages became filled with words, but before either of the two could read them, the ink returned to his serpentine state.

            "Mommy?  Daddy?" Little Alex opened the second floor door just a crack.  "Mommy, Daddy, where are you?" She walked down the stairs, her sandals flip-flopping on the carpet.  "Grandpa, are you here?"

            "What is it, Alex?" Edward appeared out of the dining room.

            "Grandpa, can you come up here?  There's a monster under my bed again."

            Silently, Edward rolled his eyes.  For two straight years, Alex had been plagued by a steady stream of 'monsters' wherever she went.  Normally he'd dismiss it as the night terrors of an ordinary four-year-old, but according to his son, Alex encountered a 'monster' almost every other day.  "Okay, Alex, hold on just a second."

            "Can you hurry up, please?  I think it's gonna jump out at me."

            Edward ascended the stairs and took his granddaughter by the hand.  "Okay, Alex.  Don't worry, I'll chase the monster away."

            "Thanks, Grandpa." She led him to her bedroom and pointed under her bed.  "It's hiding under there, see?"

            He bent down and ran a hand under the bed.  "I don't think there's any monsters here."

            "He's still there, Grandpa."

            He sighed.  "Where?  I don't see it."

            "He's still there.  Look."

            Edward looked again, just to oblige his granddaughter, but this time he did see something there.

            He couldn't discern exactly what it was, but it's presence was undeniable.  He reached under the bed again, and his hand brushed against something cold and solid.  It moved away from him, making scratching noises on the wooden floor.  Edward squinted and adjusted his glasses to see it, but by the time he had focused on it, it was gone. 

            "He's gone now." Alex beamed.  "He knew you could see him, so he ran away."

            Edward got up and dusted off his slacks, and his granddaughter gave him a hug.  "Thanks, Grandpa."

            "Anytime, Alex." There really had been something under her bed, he thought In most houses, he would have blamed a mouse, maybe, or a stray pet.  But this was Roivas Manor.  Heaven only knew what might be wandering in here...

            "I don't get it!  Nothing's working!" Anna sunk back in her chair.  "No matter what Spell we cast, nothing happens."

            Well, *something* happens." Jonathan corrected her.  "Just nothing permanent." 

            "Same thing." Anna brushed her hair out of her eyes.  "Stupid book.  What Spells have worked so far?"

            "Bind, Summon, Enchant, and Reveal, I think.  Do you want to try something else?"

            "No, no.  If those didn't work, why should anything else?"

            Jonathan also sat back in his chair, mouthing the Runes aloud, thinking hard.  Occasionally he would flip through the Tome, skim over a chapter, then go back to the last page.

            "What are you doing?"

            "I just thought of something.  If one Spell doesn't work, maybe all of them at once will."

            "All of them at once?  How do you intend to do that?"

            Jonathan took off his glasses and cleaning cloth and began to wipe off the lenses.  "What I was thinking was, if we used the Runes of all the Spells that worked, we could make a single Spell that would work."

            "Jonathan, I love you and everything, but that's nuts.  You know it won't work with more than four different Runes.  We've tried that."

            Her husband only shrugged.  "It can't hurt to try." He turned back to the last page.  "Tier Aretak Bankorok–"

            Already the Magick had begun to react, twisting more violently.  Anna warily watched the page, edging toward the back of the room.

            "Redgormor Narokath Magormor--" Even Jonathan began to look uncomfortable as the ink danced all over the page.

            "Pargon."

            The Runes, lit in pure white, appeared and formed a sphere in space, spiraling around the book like stars.  The ink on the page formed half-intelligible words, then spread across it as though it had been spilled, then finally abandoned the page and orbited it with the Runes.  At that point husband and wife turned away, afraid of what they would see.

            When the two opened their eyes again, the Runes and the ink was gone.  Instead, standing before them, staring them in the eye, was a ghostly Roman woman, holding the Tome in one hand.

            Anna slumped down into an sofa.  The last two weeks had dragged on for an eternity. For almost every waking minute of those two weeks–and probably some of the sleeping ones too–they had been trying to think of ways to get Minerva's message to paper.  Exactly zero of these ideas had worked.  Even the simplest thing, like actually taking a pen and writing it on the page, didn't work.  The ink had melted and run off like water in a gutter.  She massaged her aching head in her hands.  She was clean out of ideas.  Not only that, but ever since they had found the Tome she'd been having the creeping feeling of someone watching her. 

            "You look tired." Her husband nonchalantly commented.

            "I *am* tired.  I don't know what to do."

            "Neither do I." He sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulder.  "Maybe we're working too hard at this." He pondered.  "Maybe we're going at it too hard.  I think if we...well, took a day off, in a manner of speaking, that'd give us time to recharge, and think of new ideas."

            His wife looked up at him.  "Are you saying that because you think it will work or because you're as exhausted as I am?"

            "Both.  That, and Dad's starting to wonder what we're up to."

            "Yeah, I guess so.  We've been kind of antisocial." She laughed and got up, but suddenly her eyes grew wide.

            "Anna?  What is it?" He turned around to see what she saw and froze.  She had been right all this time–something had been watching her, and that something was revealing itself now.

            Standing before them, perfectly still, was a Guardian of Chattur'gha

            Anna and Jonathan didn't dare move.  Instead, Anna whispered, "Is that what I think it is?"

            "It is."

            "It's not moving."

            As if in response to that, the Guardian skittered forward, it's spindly legs scratching on the floor.  The pair backed away from it, and Jonathan reached for a weapon.  Runes appeared on the ground as the beast began to cast a Spell.

            "Antorbok Pargon Redgormor Pargon--" It's voice, low and gravelly, broke the silence.

            "Anna?  Jonathan?  Are you in here?" Edward Roivas opened the door, and the Guardian instantly disappeared.

            Two sighs of relief, then, his daughter-in-law's voice, "Yeah, we're in here.  What is it?"

            Edward shook his head.  "Just wondering where you two disappeared to.  Your daughter's been looking for you.  She says she's been seeing monsters under the bed, as usual, but in the past two weeks..." He shrugged.  "Let's just say her 'sightings' have been every other hour, not every other day."

            "I thought it would let up if she came here..." The two resumed their seats on the couch.  

            "Apparently it hasn't." He too took a seat.  "Is something bothering you?  You look worried."

            "Um..." He briefly contemplated telling his father the truth, but decided against it.  "No, nothing's bothering us."

            "Are you sure?  Lately both you and Alex have been on edge..."

            Jonathan sat back in the chair, taking a fake casual air that he was sure his father could see through.  "Look, Dad, just because you're desperate to roll out the therapy couch doesn't necessarily mean that there's anything wrong."

            "I never even owned a therapy couch..."

            Anna forced a laugh.  "Well, the point is, there's nothing wrong.  I don't know why Alex has been so nervous."

            "Must be all those 'monsters' under the bed.  I'd be stressed if invisible devils were chasing me everywhere." Edward joked.  "Well, sorry to be intrusive." He opened the door and left the room.

            Anna melted into a puddle on the couch.  "Great.  This is just great.  I can't believe it."

            "Can't believe what?"

            "Think about it.  Alex has been seeing more monsters for the past two weeks, and it's been two weeks since we found the Tome. A Guardian just showed up here.  Put two and two together.  Alex has been seeing the Guardians.  Which means," she continued, "that they know we have the Tome.  Not only that, but there's a lot of them here, and it'll only be a matter of time before they stop hiding."

            "Don't you think you're jumping to conclusions, Anna?  For all we know, Alex might not be seeing anything.  It might be just her imagination."

            His wife turned to face him.  "Jonathan Roivas, look me in the eyes and tell me that you honestly believe that."

            He hesitated, then looked down.  "Okay.  You win.  I don't believe that." He sighed.  "Well, even so, she might only be seeing one.  And I think we can handle one."

            "Mm hmm.  Right." Anna's reply had 'I think you're wrong' written all over it.

            "Well, even if there's more than one of them, what are we supposed to do about it?  We don't know where they're coming from."

            "We could leave.  Now." She sat up straight.  "If the Guardians are after us, they'll follow us if we leave."

            "What good will that do us, then?"

            "It *won't* do us any good.  But it will keep them away from Alex." 

            "If she stays here, she'll have to stay with my dad.  For all we know, they might be after him too."

            She shook her head.  "I don't think so.  She'll be safer with your father than she'll be with us."

            "What makes you think so?"

            "The last time the Guardians tried to kill your father, he wiped them out.  I don't think they'll be too eager to try anything with him around.  I say we go home, and we do it soon."

            "Shouldn't we tell Dad about all this before we go?  I mean, if we just take off all of a sudden, he'll get worried."

            Again Anna shook her head.  "If he knew what was happening, he would want to go with us.  We wouldn't be able to convince him to let us go alone.  If he goes with us, he'd have to take Alex, and I don't want her involved in this.  Besides, if he comes with us, then..." she turned away "...then if we're all killed, Alex won't have anybody."

            "Do you really think that's what will happen?"

            "This is the Ancients we're dealing with, Jonathan.  Almost everyone who's faced them and their Guardians has ended up dead or worse. You have to consider that possibility." 

            Jonathan rested his head in his hands.  "Fine." He conceded, his voice sounding broken.  "We'll leave in the morning.  Let me go pack up my things." 

            He left the room, and Anna sat alone on the couch. 

            "Thanks for taking care of Alex while we're gone, Dad." Jonathan loaded his duffel bag in the back of the car. 

            "Remind me again why you're mysteriously taking off?" Edward asked, handing him the second duffel–which was loaded to the breaking point with heavy weaponry, but Edward didn't need to know that.

            "The guy came in to work on the roof earlier than we thought he would, and we can't ask him to wait till we get back." He smiled apologetically.  "I'm really sorry to dump all of this on you."

            "No problem." He took Alex's hand.  "Call me when you get back, alright?"

            "Sure." Jonathan, hesitated, then gave his dad a hug.  "I love you, dad..." He felt like crying, Anna's word's coming back to him.  What if he really was going to die, and once he left he would never see his father again?

            His father sounded confused.  "I love you too, Jonathan.  Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

            His son quickly got a hold of himself.  "Yes.  Yes, Dad, I'm fine." He kissed his daughter goodbye. "Bye Dad. Bye Alex." He got in the car and shut the door.

            "Did you bring it?" He asked his wife once she had got out of the driveway.

            "Yeah, it's in my duffel." He was silent for a few minutes.  Then, "You did say your goodbyes, didn't you?"

            She nodded.  "I did before you came downstairs.  What do you intend to do with the Tome?"

            "I was going to...well, I don't know.  I had an idea, but now that I think about it, it seems kind of stupid." 

            "What was it?"

            "I thought that maybe I'd write to Dad and tell him what's going on.  I'd put the letter in the Tome and then mail it back to him."

            "That sounds okay.  Start writing, I don't want to waste any time once we get home."

            Jonathan obediently took out a pen and paper.  The rest of their trip was made in silence.

            "So what do we do now?" Jonathan sat down beside his wife. "Just wait for the Guardians to show up?"

            "Essentially, yes." Anna's expression had been utterly blank since they had left Roivas Manor.

            He turned to her, wishing she would look him in the eye.  "But what if they don't?  What if we're wrong, and the Guardians aren't after us?  What if we ran away for nothing?  Anna, look at me." He demanded.  Anna did not respond.  "Why won't you look at me?"

            She only turned away.  "We weren't running away, Jonathan.  We're no safer here than we were there.  I don't consider that running away."

            "But what if we're wrong?  Maybe the Guardian's aren't after us at all.  Maybe they were going after my father, which means we left Alex in danger.  Have you ever considered the possibility that we're wrong?" Anna didn't move.  "Anna, please, look at me."

            She turned to him, and in her eyes there was nothing but anger.  "Yes, I've considered it!" Her voice had become a shout.  "Do you think I haven't?  For two weeks I felt someone following us.  For two weeks I thought they were after us.  For two damn weeks I lay awake in bed every damn night, wondering what I'd do when they came!  Do you think I just now thought about this?" Her anger spent, she looked away again.  "Do you think I'd do this if I didn't think it was the best thing to do?"

            "No." He admitted.  "I don't think that.  I don't think that at all.  I just..." His voice died away.

            "You're afraid to die." His wife finished.

            "Maybe I am.  Wouldn't you be?" He gave her a sideways glance.  "Are you?  Is that why you won't look at me?"

            Still she wouldn't turn his way.  "Maybe.  Maybe I'm a little afraid too." A pause, then, "I'm sorry, Jonathan. It's my fault we got involved in this.  I'm the one who was messing with the clock." She finally turned to him, and her eyes were beginning to mist.  "I feel like such an idiot.  Just because I had to have my way with a stupid clock, I got us into something that might get us both killed." She leaned against her husband's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Jonathan..."

            He put an arm around her shoulder. "Don't feel that way. It's not anybody's fault, especially not yours. I don't know, maybe we were just meant to come across that book."

            "Meant to?" She was getting close to crying. "I know you don't believe that. I know you don't believe in Fate, and I don't either. No, we weren't 'meant' to come across it. We found it because I screwed up and got us both mixed up in something we shouldn't be mixed up in. It's all because I just screwed up."

            "Anna..."

            Before any more could be said, they heard the sound of a wall creaking under duress. 

            Jonathan gripped his wife's hand. The Guardians had come for them.

            A plain rectangular package was waiting on Edward's doorstep when he went to get the paper that morning. 

            Curious, he forgot about the paper and took it inside, where he peeled away the brown paper covering it. What remained was an ordinary cardboard box longer than it was tall and sealed several times with packing tape.

            Whatever was in it must have been very important, Edward thought to himself, because he was unable to get it open short of stabbing the package with a kitchen knife. Once it was finally opened, however, he saw why someone would want to keep it so secret.

            The cardboard box contained a few rolls of bubble wrap and the Tome of Eternal Darkness.

            How it had ended up in the mail, he wasn't sure. He made a mental note to keep a more careful eye on it; he hadn't even noticed that it was gone. Then again, he had been making an effort to forget about it since Jonathan, Anna, and Alex arrived. Reaching for his glasses, he began to check over the Tome, just to ensure that it was still in one piece. A single sheet of white paper fell out from behind the cover.

            The sheet of paper turned out to be a letter, in his son's handwriting. How had it ended up in the Tome? Confused and growing worried, he read the letter to himself.

            _Dad, there's so much to tell you, so much that I don't really know where to begin. I guess it really started two weeks ago, when we found that book behind a bookcase in the library._

He almost dropped the letter. All this time, Jonathan had known about the Tome? That was impossible. He'd hidden it–he'd made sure that no one would find it if he didn't want them to. 

            _I know it's hard to believe, but both me and Anna have read the Tome. We know about the Ancients and humanity's fight against them. But we've made a discovery that the Ancients didn't want us to make, and now I fear that their Guardians are hunting us down. That's why we had to leave in such a hurry. If we had stayed, both you and Alex would have been in danger–particularly Alex._

The Guardians had come flooding in from all sides, like freakish ants. It was all the two of them could do to hold their positions within the protective boundaries of a Field. For every Guardian that fell, it seemed that ten sprung up in it's place. 

            "How many more of them do you think there are?" Jonathan shouted over the chaos of the melee.

            "I can't tell. There's got to be over two hundred so far." She shouted back, reloading her rifle. " Pargon Antorbok Pargon Redgormor Pargon Pargon Mantorok" Another Guardian fell to the Magickal attack.

            "Do you think we could Shield ourselves and run?" Another Guardian skittered up to the Field, but was repelled by the Magickal boundaries. Jonathan ran his saber through it's center, and it shrieked and collapsed 

            "Not enough time." She fired into the roiling mass of Guardians, slowly leveling them one by one. 

            "How much ammo have you got left?" An Ulyaoth Guardian fell to the Enchanted saber.

            "Enough."

            Surprised and dreading what he would read next, Edward continued to read the letter.

            _The Guardians know where we are. By the time you finish this letter, we'll most likely be dead. I'm sorry that we never told you about our discovery, but we didn't want you and Alex getting any more involved in this than you had to be. _

_            On the last page of the Tome, if we were at all successful, there should be a message that wasn't there before. If the message isn't there, than ignore the page. Ignore it entirely. Don't touch it, don't do anything with it. If there's no message, than that page doesn't exist._

     The Field had broken, swamped by the swarm of Guardians. The two Roivas', shielded by Magick, had been forced to take refuge on the upper levels of their home. 

            Jonathan swung his saber in wild semicircles, striking anything within his radius. This time three were caught in his swing. Three different Guardians. 

            Something registered as wrong in his mind, even in the chaos around him. Three Guardians, each serving a different Ancient. If the two of them hadn't been there, those same Guardians would have been tearing one another apart. So why weren't they doing that now?

            "Anna?" He shouted. "Anna, why aren't the Guardians attacking each other?"

            But his wife could not hear him. She was too busy pumping bullets into the nearest Guardians.

            An Ulyaoth Guardian toppled with three bullets in it's body, and a Xel'lotath Guardian crawled in to take it's place. Again, the image seemed wrong. The Guardians should have been fighting one another, not them. If they were banded together against them, it could only have been on the orders of the Ancients themselves...

            _If we don't come back, please take care of Alex for us. I don't want her growing up alone. I'm sorry to force all this onto you, but we have no choice. Besides, she'll be safer with you than she'd ever be with us._

_            Don't tell Alex what really happened to us. If she finds out about the Tome, than all this will have been a waste. Tell her whatever you want, but don't tell her the truth. Not yet. _

If the Ancients could set aside their hatred for one another and send all their Guardians to fight together against them, then all three of them must have been threatened by their actions. If the Ancients considered them a common enemy, then whatever they had done must have been far more momentous than he had ever imagined...

            However, before he could pursue this train of thought any further, the Guardians all frantically skittered away at once, crawling over and under one another in their hurry to escape. 

            "Why are they running away?" Anna rested her rifle for an instant "Is it over?"

            But by the time she had finished her sentence, it became clear why the Guardians had abandoned them.

            The swarms of Guardians had been replaced by three nightmarish beasts, each advancing toward them at once.

            "The Greater Guardians..." Anna whispered, dropping her weapon.

            The two had little time to be surprised, as the Runes of Dispel Magick formed in midair.

            _We're almost home as I write these words, so I have to be brief. We love you both and we'll miss you if we don't come back.      _

_            -Jonathan and Anna_

_             P.S. You should probably take the hands off that clock._

            The rifle, it's ammunition long since spent, lay abandoned on the floor, it's wielder now at the mercy of the Greater Guardians.

            The Shields were gone, Dispelled by the Greater Guardian's Magick. Now the Greater Guardian's prey were vulnerable. Weak. Unprotected.

            Anna sank to her knees, her body wracked by Magickal lightning. However, before the Guardian could make another move, she returned it's attack, sending the beast reeling.

            Not ten feet away, Jonathan plunged his saber into the Ulyaoth Guardian's underbelly before it could devour him. The tendrils wrapped around his waist relaxed, and he fell to the ground as the Guardian staggered backwards. As the Ulyaoth Guardian turned his attentions to Anna, the Greater Guardian of Xel'lotath advanced on him. Three Runes appeared in a triangle at his feet.

            He only barely managed to roll out of the way before he beam enveloped him, but he was not quick enough to avoid the Magickal attack the greeted him. Caught off guard, he lay on the ground for an instant, paralyzed with pain.

            It was during that instant that the Greater Guardian of Chattur'gha blind-sided him.

            The creature's claws moved faster than their ponderous appearance suggested. Jonathan dodged just in time to avoid having his head severed, but the Guardian, angered that he had missed his mark, swung a single claw in his direction. There was no time to evade it.

            The young man cried out in pain, clutching at the stump where his hand had been. The saber, with his severed hand still gripping it's hilt, had landed a few meters away. Turning around, Jonathan held up his remaining hand and prepared to cast a Field spell

            The claw of the Greater Guardian impaled him through the chest before he could speak the Runes. 

            Anna barely suppressed a cry, fighting the instinct to run to his side as she fled to another room. Tossing Jonathan's dead body aside like a broken toy, the Chattur'gha Guardian joined the other Guardians in pursuit of her.

            " Pargon Antorbok Pargon Redgormor Pargon Pargon Mantorok" She shouted, retreating to the upper floor. Brushing away the teary mist in her eyes and the trickle of blood running down her cheek, she searched for another weapon.

            No sooner had she turned to look than she felt something wrap around her body. Frantic, she clung to the doorframe, but the hand of the Xel'lotath Guardian dragged her into the open, where the three Greater Guardians waited. 

            An icy cold tendril of the Ulyaoth Guardian curled around her neck. Anna closed her eyes, knowing what was coming next.

            The Xel'lotath Guardian released her grip on her, leaving her dangling like a hung convict from the Ulyaoth Guardian's tentacle. A quick jerk was all it took to ensure that her neck was broken. 

            Disgusted with what was entangled in its tendrils, the Guardian dropped the woman's body unceremoniously on the floor. The three stood for a moment, surveying the wreckage of their quarry's home.

            "Where are the others?" The voice of the Xel'lotath Guardian mirrored that of it's mistress. "Where is the one who decimated the Enh'gah colony? And where is the last Keeper of the Light? Why are they not here?"

            "They are in some other place." The Ulyaoth Guardian replied. "Why do you seek them? The destroyer of Enh'gah's Guardians is the Liche's concern, not ours."

            "Not him. The girl. I want the girl. He may do as he pleases with the destroyer. I want the last Keeper."

            "Then let your mistress seek her." The voice of the Chattur'gha Greater Guardian, deep and booming, cut her off, and it pointed a claw at her. "They are dead. The alliance is over."

            The Xel'lotath Guardian did not reply, merely disappearing in a spark of light. The other two followed suit.

            Edward sank into a chair, hardly believing what he was reading. All this time they had known–all this time they had been hiding from the Guardians, and he had never known it. No wonder they had been so on edge. It had been almost a day since they left. Who knew what they were doing? Who knew if they were even still alive?

            At that moment, the telephone rang. 

            He finally picked it up after a few moment's hesitation, not sure that he wanted to know who was calling.

            "Is this Edward Roivas?"

            Dread filled him. "It is."

            "Sir...I don't know how to put this, but I'm afraid something terrible has happened. I need you to come down as son as you can."

            His grip on the phone tightened. "I'll be there soon." He hung up without waiting for a confirmation.

            "You are Edward Roivas, yes?" The police officer shook his hand.         

            "Yes, I am."

            "And this..." He indicated Alex. "This is your...granddaughter?"

            "Yes, my granddaughter, Alexandra."

            The police officer nodded. "I'm afraid she'll have to stay behind, sir...this isn't really something for a child to see." He stepped over the jarringly yellow police line tape. "I'm sorry that I have to be the one to show you this, sir." The officer sighed, then walked into what remained of the foyer.

            Edward looked around the wreckage of the room. The Guardian's presence was obvious: the burn damage, the disarray, the wholesale destruction. Then he saw the rooms two occupants.

            Jonathan lay spread-eagled on the carpet, his blank, dead eyes staring at the ceiling. His right hand was cut off at the wrist, and his chest was split by a gaping hole. Cuts and gashes decorated his body; black burns covered every visible inch of his skin.

            Anna was draped face-down over a railing, her broken neck hanging at a grotesque angle to her shoulder. Her arms and legs were cut and burned, and her hair, streaked with blood, fell over her face. 

            Edward turned away. Even for the Guardians, this was horrific. No one should be subjected to this.

            Just a few feet away he could hear Alex crying. By the time he left the bodies of his son and daughter-in-law, the little girl was red-faced and huddled in a corner, inconsolable and unapproachable. She looked up at her grandfather.

            "Are Mommy and Daddy dead?" was all she could manage.

            Edward didn't reply, taking his granddaughter in his arms and letting her cry on his shoulder.

            _It will only be a matter of time_, he thought to himself, _before they come back for us._

*-*-*

            Jenny closed the book, horrified. She was glad that Alex had never found this chapter. Now more than ever, she felt nothing but sympathy for her friend. First losing her parents to the Ancients, then her grandfather...

            She was beginning to hate this old mansion, more than anything else. It had brought anyone who ever lived in it nothing but pain, simply because they had chosen to live here. 

            With a mix of emotions, Jen picked up the Tome and prepared to exit the hidden chamber. However, just as she bent down, the fireplace slammed shut.

            Surprised, the girl examined the marble slab. It was firmly closed, and nothing she did would move it. There were no other windows or doors in the room–no other ways out. And the key to opening the fireplace lay in the dining room, on the other side of the passageway.

            It hit her like a falling brick. She was trapped. Trapped in a secret room in this haunted house.

End Chapter 5            


	6. A Reunion of Strangers

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1**Eternal Darkness: Origins**

**Part 1**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

Disclaimers: Okay.  You know what?  That's it.  I quit.  I refuse to write any more disclaimers.  Why?  Simple.  Anyone with an ounce of sense in their person ought to know that this is a *fan* *fiction*.  Meaning that all characters, settings, and other various copyrights are the property of their respective owners.  Since everyone ought to know that, I refuse to waste anymore time writing disclaimers.  There.  It is done.

"And lo, the almighty copyright gods did descend upon the hapless author, and behold, they did proceed to beat her over the head with many pointy sticks.  And when they were done, they did say unto the author, 'Thou shalt write disclaimers whether thou likest it or not.' And there was much rejoicing.'

Well, there goes that plan...so, onto the fic.

Chapter 6 A Reunion of Strangers 

            __They know__

_            Who?_

_            _They have discovered my efforts__I must retreat__For the time being__

_            Retreat?  Why?  Where would you go?_

_            _Nowhere__I will merely move more slowly__

_            That won't stop them, will it?_

_            _No, it will not__

_            Then why bother?_

_            _If I move too quickly, they will try to cut me off__They will kill both you and me__

_            They can kill you?_

_            _Possibly__

_            Don't leave me alone.  Please don't leave me all alone here.  I don't know what to do._

_            _Do whatever you feel like__

_            But I don't feel anything... _

            A sudden impulse had led Alex to the art museum, just a short ride away from her hotel.  She hadn't been able to figure out why; she should have been doing something more productive. Still, the paintings and statues were oddly soothing.  These works of art had meanings and messages, but they would willingly divulge them if one was willing to stop and think about it for a while.  It was a refreshing break from all the guesswork she'd been doing lately.

            It was sobering, however, knowing that even these works of art were not pure from the poisons of the Ancients.  She examined a painting where Death was depicted as a cloaked skeleton wielding a scythe and smiled humorlessly to herself.  Some poor soul back in the Renaissance had caught sight of a Gatekeeper and thought that it was Death itself.

            Unseen by the other patrons, her double–she was still unsure of what else to call her–was having the time of her life.  She struck a pose next to a statue of Calliope.  She climbed on top of Andy Warhol's Brillo boxes and declared that she was queen of the world.  She reached a hand to touch the giant Calder mobile hanging from the ceiling.

            How very odd, Alex thought to herself.  When she had first met her double, she had been cold, mocking, cruel.  Then, as time went on, she had become silent, barely saying a word.  Now, she was acting like a kid in a toy store.  She was having fun; what's more, she was acting decidedly more human, and less like some otherworldly being.

            "It is strange, isn't it?"

            Alex jumped.  She hadn't noticed someone standing next to her.  But when she caught sight of the speaker, she wasn't surprised.

            "What are you doing *here*?"

            The specter of Pious–the human Pious, before he became the Liche–just shrugged.  "Should I be somewhere else?"

            "Why are you in your human form?"

            The centurion didn't look Alex in the eye.  "Given a choice, would you rather have a human body or a skeleton?  It's a matter of preference, that is all."

            "What are you doing in an art gallery?"

            He completely ignored her question.  "I find it fascinating, how deeply woven the Ancients are into human lives." He waved a hand at a nightmarish painting; a chaotic vision of twisted forms and impossible creatures.  "Remind you of anything, Alex?"

            Before she could reply, he turned to look at the other Alex, who was sliding down a staircase.  "She's having a good time, isn't she?"

            "I don't understand it." Alex mused aloud, forgetting for a moment who she was speaking to.  "Before now she didn't act anything like this.  She was cold, and she didn't talk much.  Now she's–well, now she's acting like a little kid.  It doesn't make sense."

            "No, it certainly doesn't."

            _And while I'm on that train of thought, _Alex wondered, _Pious isn't exactly himself either. My nemesis is standing right here next to me, having a civilized conversation with me, and he's not mocking me or anything.  He's acting almost *friendly*._

            As though he could read her thoughts–and he probably could–Pious gave her a sideways glance, or what would have been a sideways glance if there hadn't been the small problem of his not having eyes.  "By the way, have you figured it out yet?"

            "No." She had come here to forget about that; his reminder annoyed her.

            "Hmm.  I didn't think you would."

            Now *that* was more like Pious.  "You never answered me." She returned his sideways glance.  "What are you doing here?  Are you following me?"

            He shook his head.  "I'm not following you, Alex." He pointed to her double, who was now preoccupied with precisely mimicking the distant, removed expression of a painted figure.  "I'm following her."

                                                "Her?" Alex turned to him in surprise.  "Why?"

            "When you find the answer, Alex," He responded, still refusing to look her in the eye.  "You will know why." 

            Jenny sat down on the floor.  The fireplace was firmly shut–the tiny crack was all that remained.  No matter how hard she pushed and pulled, the marble slab wouldn't budge.

            She twisted a strand of hair around one finger.  Great.  This was just great.  She was stuck in an abandoned house in a secret room behind a fireplace with no door and no windows where noone would ever think to look for her.

            Jen shivered.  The room had, without any warning, turned icy cold, making her tank top and jeans suddenly seem woefully inadequate.  She heard a ringing sound in her ears that seemed to have no source.  Confused, she stood up, clutching at herself for warmth, but as soon as she got to her feet, she began to feel dizzy and sick to her stomach.  The ringing in her ears grew louder, and soon the vertigo became more than she could take.  She dropped to her knees and the world around her faded to black.

            Colin hung up the phone and sighed.  "I tried calling Jen three times now.  She won't pick up." He leaned back in his chair.  "Do you think something happened to her?"

            "It's much more likely that she just left her cell phone in the car." Edward suggested.  Most of the ghosts, save him and Minerva, had disappeared from view, simply from a lack of anything better to do.  Minerva was sitting on Alex's bed–how she did this while she was incorporeal was quite beyond Colin's imagination–thinking very hard about something.

            "What are you thinking of, Minerva?" Colin turned to the Roman woman, who was now tugging on her _palla_.

            "I am trying to think of a plan."

            "Plan?" Edward seemed equally as curious as Colin.

            "You remember what I told you about my vision?"

            The two nodded.

            "What the Keeper did last time...it will not be enough now."

            "What do you mean, it will not be enough? But didn't Alex destroy the--"

            "Destroy the Ancients?" Minerva chuckled. "Oh, I can only wish." She shook her head in emphasis. "The Ancients bodies were destroyed, yes, but their Essences remained."

            "No, they didn't." Edward protested. "The Essences shattered when Alex fought with Pious. Weren't they?" There was an edge of doubt in his voice now.

            Minerva shot them both a cynical look. "Do either of you really believe that was enough to destroy them?"

            The spirit and the boy were instantly silenced. 

            "The Essences were physically shattered, but their remains are intact." She continued. "And so long as the Essences still exist, the Ancients are not gone."

            "Do you mean the Ancients are still here? Now?"

            "Not really. You see, they destroyed one another's bodies in their last fight. But the Essence–the very core of their being–their soul, if you will–is enough. So long as the Essence survives, they can reconstruct their bodies, beyond the Veil where no one can detect them."

            "But can't you see them?" Edward inquired. "You told us that you could see Beyond."

            She sighed. "It is one of the disadvantages of being dead, I am afraid. The ability has diminished somewhat. I can see Beyond occasionally, but most often I can only see the Veil itself." 

            Colin sat back. "Bummer."

            "Exactly."

            "But if physically destroying the Essences is not enough, than what can we do?" Edward seemed anxious to return to the previous discussion. 

            "I am trying to think of something." Minerva looked up at the ceiling. "To my knowledge, no one can destroy an Ancient's Essence except another Ancient, and recruiting an Ancient that hates every single one of us does not seem like a good idea."

            There was silence in the room for an instant, as everyone pondered the quandary.             

            "But if no one could destroy an Essence but another Ancient..." Colin mused aloud. 

            "And trying to get the Ancients to destroy one another's Essences," Edward pondered. "That would just start another cycle..."

            Then, the two of them came to a realization at the exact same moment, and turned to Minerva, saying simultaneously.

            "Mantorok..." 

            Minerva started, then smiled. "Of _course_..." Her palm noiselessly slapped her forehead. "Of _course_, why did I not think of it? Mantorok, the Keeper himself! Of course! Only another Ancient can destroy the Essences, and Mantorok, the Great Ancient himself, _he_ would know how to do it!" She laughed. 

            Edward and Colin stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do during Minerva's celebration. Colin, very tentatively, raised his hand as though in class.

            Still laughing, Minerva nodded at him. "Yes, Colin, what is it?"

            "Um, I just remembered something. Isn't Mantorok dead?"

            "Not yet. He has been dying for centuries, but he is not dead quite yet. He is hanging on to life by a thread." Her face fell. "Even so, he is not strong enough even to summon his Guardians. I doubt he would have the power to destroy the Ancient's Essences."

            Colin looked away. He felt his stomach sink. He had completely ruined what seemed to be their only chance, and he had no suggestions to make up for it.

            "There may be one way..."

            Edward and Colin looked up at Minerva, who had rested her head in her hands and was looking at the ceiling. 

            "What way?" Edward asked.

            "Perhaps, even though the Great Ancient has not the power to destroy the Essences himself, he could reveal a way that _we_ could destroy them."

            Colin looked up. "I thought you just said that no one but another Ancient can destroy an Essence."

            "I know that." Minerva folded her hands. "But...perhaps...perhaps it is not the fact that the  Ancient itself destroys the Essence. Perhaps the Ancients merely possess Magickal knowledge that we humans do not. And, should we be able to hold an audience with Mantorok himself, he could pass on to us this knowledge."

            "Do you seriously believe that an Ancient would lower itself to pass on knowledge to a human?" Edward asked.

            "Perhaps he will not. But, if I remember correctly, Mantorok saw fit to pass on one of it's hearts to a human, under most unusual circumstances. I believe this is an unusual circumstance."

            Colin sat back. "But what if he doesn't tell us?" 

            Minerva remained stone-faced. "Well, then, we well find that out when we speak to him, will we not?"

            Edward sighed, looking around the room. "I really don't think this is a good idea." He concluded. "Mantorok has weakened. He must feed on flesh and bone. Who's to say that he will not feed on whomever we send to speak to him? Furthermore," He paced the floor, "how could we get there? Who could we send who knows the way?"

            "I believe that Mantorok knows his Chosen." Minerva smiled mirthlessly. "We are quite safe. And as for who knows the way, I seem to remember one Chosen who is still living, aside from the Keeper of the Light."

            "Edwin Lindsey?" Colin asked.

            "Exactly. He knows where Mantorok's temple lies. He has been there before. And, just to make sure, we can send the temple's other resident."

            "Ellia." Colin finished. "But still, only two people? Only Ellia knows about the threat; nobody ever told Lindsey.  Even so..." he paused, "It doesn't really seem fair, to just tell him 'You have to go marching back to Cambodia all over again.'"

            "And would you suggest something else?" Minerva asked quizzically.

            "I'll go with him." Colin suggested. "At least then there's more of us there who knows what they're doing."

            Minerva raised an eyebrow, not moving from her spot on the bed. "Are you sure that is safe? You wandering about the jungle with someone you barely know? The servants of the Ancients are not the only dangers in the jungle. There are wild animals, insects–at least half of which are poisonous–to say nothing of the heat, the humidity, the various diseases floating around..."

            Colin sighed. "You both sound like parents. Honestly. I think I'll be fine. Besides, it'll help if we have someone there who knows what they're doing." 

            "What about Ellia? She knows about this."

            "If you go, there will be no one here if Alex comes back." Dr. Roivas added.

            Colin sighed. He had forgotten that the whole reason he was still here instead of at Roivas Manor was so that he could look for Alex. "Fine. But, seeing as I'm the only living person here, I think I should be the one to talk to him. I don't think he'll take very well to a ghost showing up at his door–no offense to anyone here. In fact, if we're going to go through with this, I should probably at least get in touch with him before I show up on his doorstep. I'll go look up his number."

            Jenny got up perhaps a half hour later, feeling very peculiar. She couldn't describe the sensation exactly. She felt numb, as though her whole body had 'fallen asleep' and she still felt cold. But for some reason the whole world looked colorless and bland. And she felt rather unaware, almost as though she was dreaming...

            The fireplace was still firmly shut, but that didn't matter anymore. She merely opened her hands and a shimmering portal, it's color brilliant against the monotonous room, opened up before her. She stepped in, taking it in stride as though she had done this all her life, and the portal disappeared.

            The next instant she found herself standing in the main entryway to Roivas Manor, which looked as gray as the hidden room. Now which door was it?, she thought dully to herself, feeling thoroughly uninterested. Ah yes, the basement. The basement that led into Ehn'gah.

            But then again, why bother? Another thought crossed her mind. She opened her hands again and stepped through a second portal, disappearing from view.

            "Here it is. Lindsey, Edwin." Colin clicked on the number on the internet listing site. He reached for the phone, dialing the number in front of him. "I hope he's home."

            The phone rang four times before anyone picked up, and when it did, the voice was that of a young woman.

            "Hello, this is the Lindsey residence."

            Was this his wife? Colin thought to himself. She seemed very young. "Hello, may I speak with Doctor Edwin Lindsey, please?"

            "I'm afraid Dr. Lindsey isn't home right now. Would you like me to take a message for you?"

            "Um, that's alright. Do you think I could call him back later?"

            The voice on the other line hesitated, suddenly sounding unsure. "I'm afraid he'll be gone quite a while, sir. He's in Guatemala for the next three weeks at an excavation."

            Colin suddenly stopped. "You say he's _where_?"

            The female voice sounded very apologetic. "In Guatemala, sir, I'm very sorry."

            "Does he have his cell phone with him?"

            "No, sir."

            He sighed. "That's all right. I'll just call back later." He hung up without waiting for her to reply.

            "He's not there?" Edward asked him once he hung up.

            "He's in Guatemala, of all places. Guatemala! What's he doing in Guatemala? How am I supposed to reach him if he's in Guatemala without his cell phone?" He sank back into his seat. "Can't you ghosts reach the Chosen instantly?"

            "In a sense." Minerva conceded.  "It is more the doing of the Tome than us.  You see, I designed transportation Spell and bound it to the Tome, similar to the Spells that the Trappers use.  It links the Tome to any Chosen who are not in the Chamber." Noticing the impatient look on Colin's face, she concluded.  "So any of us ghosts except me could find him. 

            "Can't one of you go to him and let him know what he has to do?  Someone he knows, maybe, someone he's seen before?" He sat down again and spun to face the computer.  "He's met Ellia before, hasn't he? In Mantorok's temple? And he met you too," He turned to Edward. "He met you when he gave you Mantorok's heart."

            Edward did the closest thing he could to rolling his eyes. "He knows her rotted corpse, Colin, I'm not entirely sure he knows _her_. And he met me for about a half-hour. I doubt he'll remember me."

            "But still, if Ellia meets him and tells him about all this, it'll make things that much easier for all of us." Colin thought aloud.

            "I suppose there is no harm in trying." Minerva looked skeptical, or as much as a ghost could be skeptical. "Ellia. Ellia, where are you?" She called out to the nothingness.

            Without any fanfare of any sort, Ellia appeared beside Minerva. "Yes?"

            "Do you remember the man Edwin Lindsey?" Minerva questioned.

            "The one who took the heart of Mantorok? Yes, I do." She nodded.

            "Edwin Lindsey is currently somewhere in–where was it you said?" She turned to Colin.

            "Guatemala."

            "Yes. We need you to find him and tell him that he must return home, and that something desperate has happened. Hurry, Ellia."

            Without another word, Ellia vanished.                                    

The gates of Ehn'gah were tightly shut, but not locked. They were never locked.

            Jenny stood silently, surveying the emptiness of the dead city. Not a sound came to her ears; the Guardians that had made this place their home were long gone.

            She could not help smiling to herself. Twice this city had risen and fallen; the first time, when the civilization of Ehn'gah was wiped out by the Guardians, and the second, when the Guardian population had been destroyed at the hands of a human.

            The Second Fall of Ehn'gah. It seemed almost poetic.

            She opened her mouth to break the silence, but no words came, at least not any that she recognized. In some foreign tongue, perhaps, they might have formed words, but the seemed no more than sounds. Although, in the back of her mind, it barely registered that they sounded something like Runes...

            But that thought was pushed hurriedly back as a few scattered Guardians crawled like insects over the gates of Ehn'gah. She smiled calmly. Yes, the stragglers. The few who had not been in Ehn'gah when the Binding Spell was cast. They were few, but they would have to be enough. At least for now.

            At that moment the vague, sleepy feeling that had come over her suddenly subsided, and she looked around in confusion. Why was she at the gates to Ehn'gah? How had she got out of the fireplace? And why were all these Guardians standing here and not attacking her?

            Indeed, even though they were eyeless, they seemed to be staring at her, waiting for her to...well, to do something. She just wasn't sure what yet.

            She waved an hand at them and said "Go away..." in a rather shakier voice than she would have liked. To her great surprise, the Guardians obediently slunk away, disappearing from the gate.

            Jen stood there blankly for a minute, utterly dumbfounded. _The Guardians had obeyed her_. She had told them to leave, and they had left. There was no way that she could think of to explain that. Thoroughly puzzled and with her stomach still aching, Jenny headed back to the staircase.

            Ellia stood in the center of the Chamber of Eternal Darkness, trying to think of what to do. Going all the way to Guatemala was not an option; it would take weeks to reach it, even for a ghost. There had to be an easier way to reach Lindsey.

            Shutting out the frantic screams of the faces on the floor, she pondered her options. Since Lindsey had once possessed the Tome, perhaps she would be able to instantly reach him as she had been able to do to Alex during her fight against Pious. But still, as far as she could tell, the phantasmal Tome that rested in the Chamber would only connect her to the current owner of the Tome, and going right back to the dormitory with Colin would be very counterproductive.

            Perhaps, if she opened the Tome to the right page, it would take her to that Chosen's location. It seemed unlikely, but, as the only consequences of a wrong decision was ending up back in the dormitory, it seemed worth a try.

            She opened the spectral Tome to the chapter, 'A Journey into the Darkness', looking at the still, black-and-white picture at the top of the page. She touched the page, stating simply "Take me to Edwin Lindsey."

            She was about to elaborate when the Chamber around her faded, replaced by a dismal, crumbling temple, completely unlit except for the steadily dimming light of three flashlights.

            Ellia inched closer. One of those flashlights had to belong to Lindsey; she sank halfway into the wall and followed the three flashlights, listening for any familiar voices.  

            "Can't see a damn thing in here..."

            "Do you have the extra batteries, Dunn?"

            "Thought you had 'em..."

            Ellia smiled to herself. The second voice most definitely belonged to Lindsey; she had heard it only once, when he was in Mantorok's hall, but the voice was his–and he didn't sound very happy when he next spoke.

            "What do you mean, you thought I had them? Dunn, why don't you check these things?"

            Ellia floated uncertainly among the three men, trying to find a way to attract Lindsey's attention without alarming the two other men.

            "Relax, relax, I got 'em." The first voice spoke again, beginning to fumble through his pack so suddenly that Ellia almost walked through him.

            "You're an angel from God, Cooper." Dunn said, stuffing a few batteries in his pack. Cooper just grunted in response. 

            Good. Now was her chance. Lindsey was the only one not facing his comrades. Ellia slipped though a wall and reappeared in front of Lindsey, who, preoccupied with his expiring flashlight, did not seem to notice her. She tapped him, very lightly, on the shoulder.

            Lindsey looked up, the appearance of Ellia's ghost taking him completely by surprise. His eyes widened, and he took a few hesitant steps backward.    

            "Who are you?"

            She looked him in the eye. "You know who I am.  We've met one another before, Edwin Lindsey."

            "How do you know my name?"

            This was going to be a bit more difficult than she had anticipated. "Do you remember, Lindsey, some twenty years ago, when you explored a temple in Cambodia?"

            Lindsey winced, as though remembering something he would rather have forgotten. "How could I forget it?" 

            "Then you must surely remember me. Do you remember the one who gave you the Heart of Mantorok? The skeleton you found in the last room in the temple?"

            He stared at her incredulously. "That was _you_?"

            She nodded.

            "Er." He looked very uneasy. "You look...somewhat...different..."

            "I know. This is how I looked when I was still alive."

            "Lindsey?" One of his teammates called out to him. "You still there?"

            Lindsey took a quick glance back at his teammates, then turned again to Ellia. "Look," he whispered, "I don't know what you're doing here, but I can't stay. I'm in the middle of an expedition--"

            "This is slightly more important than that." Ellia cut him off. "Do you remember the Tome of Eternal Darkness?"

            Lindsey nodded. 

            "And you remember what you read therein?"

            Another nod.

            She decided to be blunt with him. "The Ancients may rise again, and we need your help. You need to get back home. It doesn't matter what story you tell them, just get back home as soon as you can."

            "They--" Conscious of the fact that he was shouting, he lowered his voice. "They what?"

            "I cannot tell you more, Lindsey. Just get home. This will all be explained later." She turned away and vanished.  

            Once again, Alex found herself bored to the point of tears. She had spent the entire day wandering around the various Smithsonian museums with no purpose in mind and no destination. She was beginning to regret running away. Pious, her one source of intelligent conversation, had vanished again. She found herself desperately needing company–even that of Pious would be more than welcome.

            Alex shivered, in spite of the heat of the summer day. In spite of the sun shining she felt uncomfortably cold. She hadn't noticed that her double was staring at her straight in the eye. She no longer looked confused, or as though she was having fun. Now there was nothing in those eyes but hate.

            Her vision swam, and she had to sit down on a park bench to avoid collapse. There was a pain in her head, and she as though she was suspended in midair, floating in space. Someone was laughing at her again...

            "Get away from Alex!"

            It stopped all of a sudden, and her vision returned to normal. However, what she saw made her doubt that everything was normal again.

            Someone was standing in front of her, a rather small someone with curly hair. And, most notably, a very translucent someone, who seemed to glow as she looked at him.

            Whoever it was had pushed the other her to the ground, his hands balled into fists. He was shouting, and his voice–Alex could not help but be surprised–sounded very much like her grandfather's.

            "Do you understand me?" The spirit–she could only assume it was one–continued to shout. "Don't you dare take another step toward Alex!"

            "I--" The hate in her double's eyes was gone, replaced by simple confusion and fear.

            "Stop pretending." The spirit's voice lowered to a whisper. "I know who you are. I know what you are doing. And I won't let you--"

            "You can't know who I am!" The Alex lying on the walkway shouted, her voiced laced with panic. "_I_ don't know who I am!"

            "Who are you?" Alex whispered, almost fearful of interrupting them.

            The spirit turned around, and his features were ringing with familiarity. In fact, she thought, he looked remarkably like herself...

            "It's been so long..." The ghost's voice became sorrowful. "I didn't think you'd remember."

             "Remember who?"

            The double was trying to crawl backwards on her elbows, and the ghost turned to her. 

            "Do you understand me?" He returned to berating her. "Come any nearer to her, and--"

            But her double's voice changed suddenly. It settled to a malicious purr, and a venomous smile crossed her face.

            "Do what?" Her voice echoed strangely. "What could you possibly do to me? You are no longer of this world. They made sure of that. You can do nothing. Your protection of your daughter is touching, but feeble."

            _Your daughter?_ Alex thought. _That's my father?_

The face suddenly resounded in her memory. She had seen him before, it what must have been a thousand photographs in an old photo album. She had seen him while he was living, a concerned face hanging over her, murmuring, "It's okay, Alex; I won't let anything get you." She had seen his face, if only for an instant, his dead, empty face lying in his foyer, streaked with blood.

            "After all, you are nothing but a specter." Her double continued, standing up. "A mere shadow of who you used to be. You cannot protect Alex. Her fate has been determined."

            The ghost did not respond, merely moving toward Alex, as though to guard her. The double strode toward her, smiling terribly.

            "So you know who I am...or, more correctly, _she_ is. It doesn't matter. None of it will matter, soon enough." She reached her hand straight through Alex's father's chest and grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her through the specter's body and shoving her to the ground. 

            Without another word, the double put a hand to Alex's forehead and pushed her back to the ground. Her head began to burn with pain, and she struggled to pull away.

            And then it was over. Both of them lay on the gravel, the other Alex totally unconscious. The specter of her father looked her in the eyes for a moment, then turned hurriedly away and vanished.

            Alex looked at her unconscious double for a moment, then, trying to ignore the stares of passerby, got up and ran back to her hotel

            She stirred on the ground, narrowly avoiding being stepped on by a tourist. Looking next to her, she saw that Alex had disappeared.

            Ire flared up inside her as she rolled over, unwilling to get up. How could she? She thought to herself. How could Alex abandon her here? Didn't she know? Didn't she have the slightest idea?

            "Are you going to get up or not?"

            She looked up, unfamiliar with the voice who was speaking to her. She was looking into the face of a ghost in centurion armor, casually offering her a hand.

            "I thought you were incorporeal." She retorted, not taking his hand.

            "Good point." He withdrew his hand. "So are you going to get up?"

            "Why are you here?" She got up, looking him in his empty eyes. "Why have you been hanging around me and Alex?" Before he could respond, she got up on her elbows and continued to interrogate him. "And why are you so friendly with Alex? The girl killed you, Pious, and you act as though you were acquaintances."

            "I'm not being friendly." He looked disgusted at the thought. 

            "You're sitting there, talking to her, and not trying to kill her or anything. That's close enough for me." She glared at him.

            "That's far from being friendly." Pious shot back. "Besides, I couldn't kill her even if I wanted to. I'm just a ghost, remember?"

            "I still don't understand." She got up. "Then why are you even speaking to her? Why are you appearing to her?"

            "Because I have nothing else to do." Pious chuckled, apparently making some sort of private joke. 'Alex' raised an eyebrow, and he continued. "Simply to find out what she knows. That is all."

            'Alex' didn't look convinced. "If you say so." She whirled around on her heel and headed in the direction she was sure Alex went.

            Pious didn't bother to follow her, instead looking away. "You won't find her." He said to himself. "Not for a while, anyway. Not until it's too late."

            "Did you find him?" Colin asked, not looking up from the search program on the computer screen.

            "I did. I can only assume that he is returning home."

            "Good, good." Colin's eyes still didn't leave the computer. "Now, tell me something. Was he just supervising the expedition, or was he actually down there?"

            "He was in the ruins, accompanied by two men." Ellia reported. "That does not seem like 'supervising' to me. Why do you ask?"

            For the first time, Colin looked up. "Because he's got to be almost fifty by this point. It seems rather odd to me that he's still going on expeditions. He should be in a lab or doing paperwork or something. You don't send fifty-year-olds out into the wilds of Guatemala."

            Edward cleared his throat rather pointedly. 

            "Here it is." Colin finished, his attention turned back to his computer before any further comment could be made. "It says here that Edwin Lindsey lives in--" His eyes widened as he looked at the address. "In northern Florida. Perfect. Just perfect. We get him back from Guatemala, but if we want to talk to him at all we have to fly down to Jacksonville. Just damn perfect." He looked irritably up at the ceiling. "At least he lives on the same coast, I don't know _what_ I'd do if he lived in California."

            "No one said you had to go see him." Minerva looked at him. 

            "I know, but if we're going to send him tearing off to Cambodia again, I figure I should at least to explain to him what's going on. I at least owe him that." He started typing again. "I'll see if I can get plane tickets." 

            "Come back soon." Minerva reminded him. "When you are gone, there will be no one here if the Keeper returns."

            "Somehow I don't think she's going to do that anytime soon." Colin got up and looked in the closet, trying to see if there were any more suitcases left. "Besides, Jenny should be coming back any minute now. She'll be here." He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "Speaking of Jen, she didn't leave me any suitcases. I'll have to go out and get one." Picking up his own car keys, he began to walk out the door. "I should be back in a couple of minutes. Tell Jenny where I am if she gets back before I do."

            With that, he strode out the door.

            _I think I'm lost._

_            _Why do you think that?__

_            Because I don't know...I don't know where they've gone. I'm alone._

_            _You're not alone__I'm still here__

_            You are? Where are you?_

_            _Where I have always been__

_            But I can't reach you. I'm alone here. _

_            _You won't be for much longer__I can promise you that__

_            Will you come for me? Will you come where I can reach you?_

_            _Not yet__But soon we will come face to face__    

End Chapter 6 


	7. Dr Lindsey, I Presume?

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1**Eternal Darkness: Origins**

**Part One**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

Disclaimers: Due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e. the tragic unavailability of death wedges), my army of robots is *still* not finished, therefore I have *still* not taken over the world, and, consequently, I *still* don't own Eternal Darkness or any other copyrights in this fic. You know, building a killer robot army looks *so* much easier in the movies...

Author's notes: I sincerely apologize for Chapter 6. That was what we authors like to call a 'gap-bridger', made so that I could get on to the next part which I actually know how to write. Again, I apologize for the discombobulatedness of Chapter 6, and promise that all chapters from here on in will be much better written and a lot less disjointed. Thank you. Bows 

Chapter 7 

Dr. Lindsey, I Presume?

            _I think I'm beginning to understand now._

_            _Why do you try to understand?__

_            Because I want to know.  Besides, I believe she is beginning to understand as well._

_            _She will not even begin to know it__Not until it is too late to change anything__

_            Are you sure?_

_            _Why are you questioning me?__Do you not trust me?__

_            It's just...I think she will realize sooner than you think._

_            _We shall see__

The front door to Roivas Manor was locked.

            Jenny let out a breath in frustration and pounded on the door.  There was no way out of the house now, short of breaking a window. 

            This was not her day. First, she got stuck behind the fireplace–and she still wasn't sure how she had gotten out of there–and now she was locked in the house.

            She took a look around the room. Somehow nothing in there seemed sturdy enough to shatter the window. She looked around, trying to think of some other way out. There had to be an upstairs window somewhere that would open.

            Quiet, soft piano music began to slowly fill the house. It seemed to come from every room, in every direction. Intrigued, Jen walked away from the door and tried to locate the source of the music.__

The tune was familiar, a classical piece that she had heard in a concert hall.  Mentally she searched for a name to match it.  Canon in D, that was it.  Although, the way it was being played, it sounded like an elegy.  It wasn't that the notes were different, it was just being played with so much sadness...

The only piano in the house was in the dining room.  She opened the dining room door and was greeted with an unexpected sight.

            Sitting at the piano, playing as though this happened every day, was an etherial young woman.  She sat up perfectly straightand seemed to be absorbed in the music, never looking up nor indicating that she was aware of anything else.  And she, too, was familiar.

            "Anna Roivas?" Jen whispered.  "What are you doing here?"

            The ghost started, surprised, and her insubstantial fingers slipped through the keys of the piano as though they were empty air.  She looked up, but did not say anything. 

            At a loss for words, Jen turned to the piano the spirit of Anna had been playing.  "I didn't know ghosts could touch physical things.  I thought you just went through them."

            "We can." Her voice sounded almost the same as it had when she was alive.  Almost, Jen thought, except how closely it matched the music she had been playing–lonely, and mournful.  "But only if we focus on it.  If we're distracted or we're doing something else--" She passed her hand through the piano keys again in demonstration, "then we just slip through."

            "You are Anna, right?" Jen asked.

            "I am."

            "Then why are you here?"

            Anna got up from the piano.  "I'm here to make sure that you're still safe, alive, and sane."

            "Me? Why?"

            "Haven't you noticed?" Anna looked her in the eye, and once again she shuddered.  "Haven't you noticed what's been happening to you?  Your loss of awareness?  Those times when you felt that you were somewhere–or some_one_–other than you really were?_"_

Jen thought once again of her loss of consciousness after she had read from the page, the strange, dreamy feeling that had come over her... "What do those have to do with anything?"

            Anna motioned for her to follow, moving toward the door.  "You are in danger, Jenny.  You're in far more danger than you realize.  We need to get you back home as soon as possible."

            Room service pizza, over-fried french fries and what seemed like a gallon of soda. 

            Food for thought, mused Alex, digging in to her pizza.  And she was in serious need of some time for thought.  And, since she really didn't feel she could show herself in public anymore without having something happen, it had seemed safest to just go back to her hotel room.

            She looked at the ceiling, mulling over recent events.  Why had her father appeared as a ghost?  She had thought that only those who had some connections to the Tome and the fight against the Ancients appeared as ghosts.  

            How had her parents died, anyway?  Grandfather had always been very vague on that topic.  He had told her only that her parents had been murdered in their own home, and that the police had never found the responsible party.  Maybe they had discovered the Tome; after all, they too were members of the Roivas family.  

            Besides, the police had never found the one responsible for her grandfather's death either, and she knew very well who that was.  It was entirely possible that her parents had been killed at the hands of the Ancients... 

            Her TV clicked on, which immediately struck her as odd.  The remote was on the other side of the room.  A dry, humorless voice commented, "Interesting."

            She rolled her eyes, not even feeling the need to look up.  A moment ago she would have welcomed any company, even his; now she was too confused and too irritated to talk to anyone, especially him.  "Go away, Pious."

            The centurion's ghost sat down on her bed and clicked the remote a few times, flipping through the channels.  It looked so out of place it was almost comical.  "Is this what you do all day?"

            "What are you doing here now?" Alex muttered through a mouthful of pizza. 

            Pious did not respond, tapping the Channel button in a steady rhythm.

            Alex put down her pizza and turned to him in irritation.  "Pious, get off my bed and stop flipping channels."

            "Is there something wrong with me sitting here?" Pious shot back.

            "Yes.  Get off the bed and answer me."

            Pious still didn't move–not, she considered, that she had really expected him to.  Instead, he turned off the TV.  "You realize that you left her out there, Alex.  You left her all alone, with nowhere to go."

            "So?" She didn't look at him.  "She can think for herself.  She's got to have something better to do all day than follow me around."

            "Actually," Pious corrected her, "she doesn't.  If you're not there, she might as well not exist."

            Alex paused, then turned to him.  "What do you mean?  Why is that?"

            "Why, I will not say.  But you, Alex, are her sole reason for existence.  Why else would she follow you?"

            She didn't answer him. "Then why are you here if she's out there?"

            Pious hesitated, if only for an instant.

            "Do you not know?" She continued.  "Does it even matter to you?  Why did you even come back?"

            The ghost stood up, finally facing her.  "I'm here for no reason that you would understand." He said, curtly, turning on his heel and walking through the locked door.

            Alex was about to turn the TV back on when it hit her.  Any other time that Pious had tired of talking to her, he had simply vanished.  This time, he had actually walked away. 

            Trying to ignore the sensation of something being wrong, Alex got up and flipped on the TV.    

            The flight had been blissfully uneventful, other than a few amusing technical difficulties during the in-flight movie.  Colin was glad for it.  It gave him some time to just think about all this.

            The past few days had gone by in such a blur.  Even so, it seemed like it should have been far more than just a few days.  It felt unreal.  Like it should have been happening weeks ago, not days ago.  And now, here he was, flying off to Florida, possibly flying off to Cambodia soon, if he had anything to say about it.  If he had known about this two weeks ago...he smiled to himself.  If he had known about this two weeks ago, he probably would have packed up his things and moved.

            He barely even noticed the time that passed as he got off the plane, picked up his luggage at the baggage claim, left the airport, and got on the train to Jacksonville.  He was begginning to wonder if this was a good idea.  After all, he and Jenny were both in different states, and if Alex came home and found both of them gone, she might assume the worst.  That, and, if something happened, it would take him too much time to get back home.

            He sighed, dropped his suitcase by his seat, and stared out the window.  His head was starting to hurt again, though not nearly as badly as it had when he was talking on the phone with Jenny.  He was feeling a bit nauseous, too, and dizzy to boot. 

            _It's probably just the heat. _ He thought, pulling out a book.

            //Why are you here, Colin?//

            He started.  Someone's voice was whispering to him–whispering at the very edge of his hearing.  It wasn't a normal voice, either.  It was a voice you wouldn't expect *anyone* to use, let alone a human.  He tried to ignore it, for fear of attracting attention.

            //Why are you going this way, Colin?  You're not supposed to be here.  Go home.  Turn around and go home.//

             He wanted to stand up all of a sudden.  He couldn't explain why. 

            //Get up.  Now.  Get off the train.  Go home.//

            _Why? _ It was taking every ounce of resolve he possessed to stay in his seat.

            //Alex will be waiting for you.//

            His legs were moving without his consent, lifting him up from his seat and making him walk.

            //Alex will be there.  Alone.  Vulnerable.//

            _Stop it. _He was heading for the door between cars now, walking slowly, his book still clutched in his hand.  His free hand reached for the emergency release handle.

            _Stop it!_

He forced himself to walk back to the seat and sit down, but his body ached with the resistance, and he had to grip the armrests to keep from getting up again.

            //Get up.  Turn around.  Go back.//

            _No..._

"Why am I in danger?  I haven't seen anyone here but you and me." Jenny inquired, following Anna's ghost back into the foyer.

            "You haven't seen them, no." Anna corrected her.  "But Beyond...that is a different story."

            "Beyond?  You can see Beyond?"

            "We cannot see Beyond, not unless we had that ability during our lifetimes.  But when the Ancients are active–when they are tampering with human lives–we will know." Anna drifted effortlessly through the door.  Jenny heard the click of a lock, then saw the knob turning, but the door didn't open.  Anna reappeared through it, looking discouraged.  "It's not locked from the outside."

            "If it's not locked, then why won't it open?" Jenny gave the door another tug.  "Do you see any Magickal markings?"

            "No."  Anna replied.  "At least I don't *see* any.  But..." She looked around.  "This whole place just doesn't feel right.  It's hard to explain."

            Jen was silent for a moment, feeling very awkward. She was at a loss for what to say. Every time she looked at Anna, she couldn't help remembering the chapter page, and what had happened to her while she was alive. She kept getting the image in her mind of the living, human Anna, dangling by her neck from the Ulyaoth Guardian's tendrils. 

            "You seem distracted." Anna commented. "Is something wrong?"

            "No. It's nothing."  She paused. She was beginning to feel cold again. "Anna, what exactly is Beyond? What is it that's threatening me?"

            "I cannot tell exactly what it is. All I can feel is the presence of something." She looked away, looking apologetic. "And I'm afraid that something is following you, Jenny."

            "Following me? What would be following me?" She was shivering again. 

            "I don't know..." Anna passed her hand through the door a few times. "I don't understand it. This whole place just feels too Magickal."

            "How can you tell?" 

            "Normally, passing through solid objects is easy. It's like moving through air. But look at the door." Again she put an arm through it in demonstration. "It's like trying to swim in molasses."

            Jen shuddered from the cold. Anna's voice seemed far away suddenly. She recognized the sensation. It had happened after she had read the page, before she lost awareness.

            Anna whirled around to face her. "Jenny, something's wrong."  

            The girl nodded in reply. The cold was growing worse, and she clutched at her body in attempt to stay warm. She felt nauseous again.

            "Jenny?" Anna looked at her curiously. "What is wrong?" Then she let out a gasp of surprise. "Oh no."

            "Oh no what?" The last time Jen had lost consciousness, she had managed to get out from behind the fireplace, where she had been trapped before. Perhaps if she let it happen again, she'd be able to get out of Roivas Manor...

            "No." Anna cut her off, as though she could read her mind. "No. Jen, don't let go. You don't know what'll happen. It'll put you in even more danger. Jen, you have to fight it!"

            Anna's warning was faint and vague in Jen's ears. All she could hear was that familiar whispering...

            Colin checked the address again. The address was correct, and by all accounts this was where Dr. Lindsey's house should be. But still, it didn't look right. He was standing before a medium-sized two-story house with a nicely painted porch and a few potted banana shrubs lining the brick walkway to the porch. The whole house was tucked away behind a fence of tall, leafy trees. Somehow, to Colin, this didn't look like a place where an archeologist should live. It was too neat, too under control.

            The threatening rumble of thunder interrupted his train of thought, and Colin looked up, surprised. The sky was iron-gray with no hint of daylight breaking the clouds. It would only be a matter of time before it started pouring down rain. 

            Colin knocked precisely three times on the door. Within a few seconds, the door opened, and a girl who couldn't have been any older than he was stood in the doorway. She was wearing slack jeans and a floppy white T-shirt, and her hair was pulled up in a tight ponytail. 

            "Hi." She greeted him, looking at him quizzically. "And, you would be...?"

            "My name's Colin, Colin Perne. I spoke to you on the phone a few days ago, I believe?" 

            "Oh yeah..." The girl nodded, shaking his hand. "My name's Julie. It's a pleasure to meet you."

            "Pleasure's all mine. Is Dr. Lindsey at home?"

            "Oddly enough, yes. He just came back this morning. Let me go get him." She disappeared into the house.

            A few minutes later, Julie reappeared, holding open the door. "He'll be down in just a minute. Come in, don't just stand out there. It's going to start raining soon, don't you know?"

            "I could tell." Colin stepped into the house and closed the door behind him. Inside, the house was immaculate. Almost everything seemed to shine–he could've sworn that he saw his reflection in the walls. "How does he keep this place so nice?"

            "Oh, *he* doesn't." Julie smiled. "I do."

            "Are you his wife?"

            The girl snorted, as though she was trying not to laugh. "Only in my wildest dreams. I just work here. I keep the place as clean as it is. And, since you seem to be so pleased with it, maybe I can talk him into giving me a pay raise–oh, here he comes now."

            Edwin Lindsey, who was walking down the stairs at that moment, hadn't changed much in the twenty years it had been since his chapter in the Tome took place. His beard had been replaced by heavy stubble, as though he had shaved it off once but was now having second thoughts about that decision, and his moustache was completely gone. He was, however, remarkably well-kept, with a few graying hairs as the only testaments to his fifty-plus years. 

            "Hey Julie." He greeted her, then turned to Colin. "And, you are?"

            "Oh. My name's Colin Perne. Am I speaking to Dr. Lindsey?"

            "That you are." He too shook Colin's hand. "Julie told me you called for me earlier?"

            "Yes, I did." He lowered his voice. "I trust you met Ellia recently?"

            Lindsey nodded, then turned back to Julie. "Jule, if you could go upstairs for a minute? This is kind of private."

            "Sure." The girl agreed, heading up the stairs. "Call me if you need me." With that, she disappeared into one of the rooms and shut the door.

            "So." The archeologist turned back to Colin. "What's going on with the Tome? Ellia didn't give me any details."

            "It's kind of complicated. I'm not entirely sure I understand it yet." The boy walked over to the kitchen and pulled out a chair. "May I sit down?"

            "Go ahead."

            "Thanks. Anyway, basically what happened is, on the last page of the Tome, there was supposed to be this message–more like a warning–from the creator of the Tome, Minerva. While she was making it, she got a vision of the Ancients rising again after they had been defeated at each other's hands. Am I making sense?"

            "Yeah, of course. Although I'll want to know more about Minerva after you're done. I didn't know anyone made the Tome."

            "Of course. So, after we heard about that, Minerva told us that the only way the Ancients could truly be destroyed was to destroy their Essences. However, the only one who possesses the power to destroy an Ancient's Essence is another Ancient, and the only Ancient who isn't likely to kill us is Mantorok. Remember him?"

            Lindsey rolled his eyes and smiled mirthlessly. "Of course. But only vaguely, mind you. It's easy to forget that sort of thing." He added sarcastically.

            Colin chuckled. "So, basically, you and Ellia are the only ones who know exactly where Mantorok's temple is. And we need to get to Mantorok's temple. So..."

            Lindsey gave him a critical look. "So, I'm supposed to go back to that deathtrap of a temple just like that?"

            "I'm afraid so. Sorry."

            Lindsey didn't look very happy about it. "Listen, Colin, I don't know if you read that book at all, but the last time I was there, I nearly got myself killed in a hundred different ways. Razor traps, poison gas, undead monsters, having my 'employer' try to shoot me, dysentery...The list goes on."

            "Dr.  Lindsey, please--" He was about to argue, but all of a sudden, the ache in his body came back, even worse than before.  He doubled over, biting his lip to fight back a cry.  Again he felt the irresistible need to move, to get up and leave, to go back home.

            "You okay?" Lindsey asked him, giving him a curious look.

            Colin nodded.  "Yeah.  Yeah, I'm okay...I...I'll be right back." He said quickly, taking off for the bathroom. 

            He barely had the strength to lock the door before the pain became too much.  He clutched desperately at the porcelain vanity, breathing hard, trying to ignore the voice, the same inhuman voice that had spoken to him on the train.

            //Go back home, Colin.//

            _I won't._

//You must go back.  Alex is there.  She is alone.  The time is right.//

            _What are you talking about?_

//You must go back, so that which has been determined since the birth of the universe may come to pass.//

            _I won't go back.  I've come too far to go back now._

"Why not?"

            Colin looked up in surprise.  The voice in his mind had been replaced by his own voice, coming from the mouth of his reflection in the mirror.

            "What?" He asked, shocked.  The pain had dulled, but only a little

            "I said, why not?  Is it too much to ask that you go back home?"

            Now that he was speaking to what resembled a human being and not to an imposing, disembodied voice, Colin felt quite a bit more confident.  "Well, equally to the point, why should I listen to you?  Why should I be taking orders from a reflection?"

            The mirror image laughed.  Colin swallowed hard, knowing he'd made a mistake, because it was not at all a nice laugh. 

            "A reflection?  Colin, really.  If I was just a reflection, would I even be speaking to you?" The reflection let go of the vanity in the mirror and stood up straight.  "No, Colin, I'm not a reflection.  If you saw who I really am, right here, right now..." He gave that unpleasant chuckle again.  "You'd be dead."

            "Then what are you?"

            The reflection didn't respond at first.  Then, he reached out directly in front of him with his hands together. 

            "Watch." He said simply.

            He pulled his hands apart, and the world around him parted like a curtain.

            Colin jerked backward in surprise.  Beyond the curtain that he had pulled apart lay a vast, inestimable void, with a thousand different shades of black playing across the emptiness. Voices without any visible source bounded and echoed across the darkness.

            "Do you see?" His reflection mocked him. The ache had returned now, worse than before. He struggled to stay on his feet, pain shooting like quicksilver through every nerve of his body. The voice was back, and this time it was laughing at him...He gasped for air and knew that he had screamed.

            Involuntarily he felt himself get up, turn the handle of the bathroom door, walk over to the door of Dr. Lindsey's home. 

            _Stop it!_ He was trying to think clearly in spite of the pain. _Stop it! Let go of me!_

Dr. Lindsey had walked up to him, concern in his eyes. "What's wrong, Colin? What happened?"

            Colin opened his mouth to speak, but the words died before they even left his vocal chords. Instead, he slumped backward, sliding down the wall as he sank to the ground, consciousness leaving him.

            Jen blinked hard. The numbness and the coldness had gone, replaced by a rather painful bump on the back of her head.

            She was on her back on the floor, and Anna Roivas had her pinned down by the arms.

            "What is _wrong_ with you?" Anna was shouting at her, looking angry. "You don't know what will happen if you allow it to take over you! Have you no sense?"

            Jenny got to her feet, passing through Anna as though she wasn't even there. It was like walking through a shower of cold water. "Look, Anna. Last time this happened to me, I was trapped behind the fireplace in the dining room. When I woke up, I was here. In the foyer. I don't know how I got out of there, but I did. Maybe if I do it again, I can get out of here."

            Anna sighed and got up herself. "You don't understand in the slightest, do you? There is something Beyond that is following you. For all you know, whatever it is could be using these...*incidents* to gain control of you. Is that worth getting out of the house?"

            "That's easy for you to say." Jen gave the door another tug. "You're a ghost. You don't have to eat or anything and you can leave whenever you want. Somehow I don't think Alex left anything in the pantry. I don't think she intended to come back." When Anna didn't reply, Jen turned to the ghost and leaned on the door. "Makes things a bit more complicated, doesn't it?"

            "Of course." Anna said, with a sardonic edge to her voice. "I never would've thought of the fact that you needed to eat." She folded her arms and stared Jen in the eye. "Look, we'll probably get out of here in a day or two at the most. If all else fails, we can break a window. I just don't think that's a good idea because it'll draw too much attention."

            "Couldn't we just open the window?"

            Anna shook her head. "The windows down here don't open, and Alex locked the second floor door. Even if I could get through and open an upstairs window, you couldn't get through the door." In response to Jenny's grim look, Anna replied, "We'll get out of here soon enough. And you shouldn't have to resort to your little episodes." She turned around and started up the stairs. "I'll see if I can find the spare key. I'll be back soon." With that, she disappeared through the door.

            Jen shrugged to herself. _I don't remember Anna being that sarcastic. _She thought, looking up at the second floor door. 

            Her train of thought was cut off, however, by the sudden, unexpected presence of two Guardians, standing perfectly still, turned to 'face' her.

            Jen tried to back away, remembering only a second later that she was already leaning against the door. The Guardians weren't moving, only staring at her in the same sightless way that they had at the gates of Ehn'gah.

            Jenny tried to think fast. She had been able to drive the Guardians away at the gates to Ehn'gah, and these were the same type of Guardian. Time to see if she could do it again. 

            She opened her mouth to speak, but the voice that came out of her mouth was not her own. She heard, instead, a man's voice that she did not recognize speaking to the Guardians.

            "_Now is not the time to act, Guardians. The girl is under the watch of the Roivas ghost. We cannot act without being suspect. Leave, now, before she returns._"

            The Guardians obeyed, disappearing without a noise. Jenny clapped a hand over her mouth in amazement. Why had she spoken in a different voice? Who's voice was replacing her own? And why did the Guardians obey her?

            Thoroughly confused, her questions swarming around her head like gnats,  Jen sat down on the floor, hoping that Anna hadn't heard the voice as well.                        

            It was while she was on the Metro that it hit her. She needed a name.

            Alex's double had been searching for the past few hours for her counterpart, to no avail. It seemed almost futile to look anymore, and she had hopped on the metro and had been riding for the past hour, doing nothing but sitting and thinking.

            And it had just occurred to her that she had no name.

            It was interesting. She'd never thought of herself by any name. She'd never thought of herself by anything. 

            She tried a few names in her mind. Nothing sounded quite right to her. The only name that even seemed to fit was Alex–and she couldn't really use that.

            She leaned back in her seat and looked out the window at the streaming lights of the tunnel, trying to think of what name she would like. If she was going to make herself a name, she wanted something unusual. Something exotic. Something unique. 

            But still, it bothered her that she had never had a name. If she had never been given a name, was she meant to have one in the first place?

            _Was I even meant to have a name?_ She thought to herself.

            __No__I never gave you a name__

The voice. She hadn't heard it for so long now. She hadn't noticed how much she missed it's constant whispering in her ear. By why was it telling her she couldn't have a name?

            _Why can't I have a name?_

_            _There is no reason for you to have a name__That is why I never gave you one__

_            Can't I make one for myself?_

_            _Why?__

_            I don't know. It just doesn't feel right, not having a name. _

Again the voice fell silent. 

End Chapter 7 


	8. An Audience With the Keeper

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1**Eternal Darkness: Origins**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

Disclaimers: It's only been seven chapters and I'm already out of amusing disclaimers!  Oh well. You know the drill.  Don't own it.  Don't claim to.  Wish I did.

Note: As an observant reader may have noticed, I am removing the "Part One" from the title.  (Formerly: Eternal Darkness: Origins Part One: Resurrection of the Mad Goddess, Now: Eternal Darkness: Origins Resurrection of the Mad Goddess) The reason for this is quite simple.  I anticipated this fic to be longer than it will probably end up being.  Originally, I thought that this fic would have thirty-plus chapters, while in reality, it will probably have closer to fifteen.  Thank you, that will be all. ^_^

Additional note: Warning: Spoilerriffic chapter.

Chapter 8 An Audience With the Keeper 

            Colin sat down in his seat and struggled with his bag of airline peanuts.  He was irritated in spite of himself, although he knew he should be thankful.  After all, it had taken a lot of talking to get Dr. Lindsey to take Colin to Cambodia with him, as the doctor was now thoroughly convinced that Colin suffered from some form of seizures.  Even now, Lindsey periodically shot him furtive, worried looks out of the corner of his eye. 

            "You can stop looking at me like I've got rabies." Colin remarked after a few minutes.  "I told you, I'm perfectly fine."

            "Are you sure?" Dr. Lindsey didn't sound convinced.  "You didn't seem okay back at my house."

            "Doctor, that was over a week ago.  It hasn't happened since.  I told you, it was just my allergies.  I can have...very violent reactions sometimes."

            The doctor raised an eyebrow.  "You don't really have allergies, do you?"

            "What makes you think that?"

            "You told me you were allergic to peanuts, Colin." Dr.  Lindsey indicated the plastic bag that Colin was struggling with.  "Shouldn't you be keeling over right about now?"

            Colin looked at the bag, then back at the doctor.  "Um..." He paused.  "Okay, you're right.  I don't have allergies.  I don't know what that was, but it hasn't happened again.  There's nothing wrong with me."

            "If you say so..." The doctor turned away from him and looked out the window.  "It'll be about a half-hour till we arrive.  Make yourself comfortable."

            Jenny slumped onto the floor, sighed, and looked at the ceiling.  She had been stuck in Roivas Manor for a week now, and neither she nor the ghost of Anna had found any way out, at least not for anyone corporeal.  Thankfully, Anna had found the second floor key, so at least she could eat and take a bath, but living off of boxes of graham crackers and tap water was not much of an improvement.  She was hungry, tired, bored, but most of all, she wanted to go home.  Temporary loss of awareness was looking like a pretty tempting option.

            "Does the phone here still work?" Jenny asked Anna, who was, at the moment, going back to her piano.  "I want to call home."

            "It should be fine." Anna replied.  "It hasn't been shut off yet.  Although I don't think you should even bother.  No one's home."

            "How can you be sure?" Jenny asked.  "You haven't left the house."

            "How can _you_ be sure of that?" Anna looked up from the piano keys.  "I've needed to keep track of what's been happening, so I've been meeting up with Jonathan while you were asleep.  He says that Alex hasn't come home yet."

            "And what about Colin?" Jenny started.  "Is he still there?  Nothing's happened to him, has it?"

            "I don't know what's happened to him.  Jonathan is only keeping track of Alex.  He has no way of knowing where Colin is." Anna replied.  "I believe Colin is looking for Alex, though, so he most likely won't be in the dormitory.  Edward might know, but I haven't asked him."

            "Why not?"

            Anna didn't answer, instead returning to her piano.  Jen shrugged, knowing that, at least for the moment, there would be no talking to the ghost.  She started upstairs, wondering if, by some off-chance, Alex had put a TV in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

            She turned the knob of the second-floor door.  It wouldn't open.

            Any ounce of composure Jen might have had left was threatening to leave her.  She pushed and pulled on the door a few more times.  No use.  It didn't budge.

            "Anna, you unlocked the second-floor door, didn't you?" Jen shouted, twisting the handle again.  It didn't *sound* locked.  And the knob didn't stick like it was supposed to when it was locked.  So why wouldn't it open?

            "Of course I unlocked it." Anna answered.  She didn't elaborate, instead continuing to play as though nothing had happened.

            "Okay..." Jenny muttered to herself.  "So, in that case, why won't it open?" She turned the knob again. 

            She thought she could hear someone speaking behind the door...or several someones, more accurately.  She tried to dismiss it as the wind in the trees, but the presence of words and phrases within the whispers was undeniable.

            There couldn't be anyone else here, she thought to herself.  There's only me and Anna, and Anna's not talking.  It has to be the wind outside.  Even though it's not windy out.

            But as soon as that thought crossed her mind, the door swung open, and the voices disappeared.           

            Jenny looked around.  She couldn't see anyone up here.  She was fairly sure that there was no one up here. 

            Then the voices started whispering again....

            Jenny shook her head.  _There's no one else up here_.  _I'm probably just being paranoid. _ Laughing quietly at her own tension, Jen walked as calmly as she could down the second-floor hallway.  Absentmindedly, she opened up one of the hallway doors, ending up in one of the bedrooms.

            So far as she could tell, the bedroom was devoid of TV.  She sighed, flopping down on the bed.  It looked like all she would have to look forward to for the next few days was wandering back and forth around Roivas Manor, and she wasn't looking forward to it.

            Just then, she looked up.  She was sure she could hear water running in the bathroom.  How long had it been running?

            She got up and opened the door to the bathroom, scanning the room for the source of the running water.  Her eyes fell on the bathtub...

            Anna Roivas started, her fingers once again slipping through the keys of the piano.  She had just Jenny scream from behind the second floor door.

            Rushing up the stairs, Anna quickly passed through the door, searching for the source of the scream.  She needn't have bothered.  An instant later, Jenny burst out of the bedroom door, panicked and hyperventilating.

            "What happened?  Jenny, what's wrong?" The ghost leaned down to the girls' eye level, for by this point she had curled up into a ball on the ground.  The presence of someone Beyond had grown unmistakable...

            "There's something--something inside–bathtub–oh God–" Jenny's breath was coming out in short gasps, and forming words seemed to take a concentrated effort.

            "What's wrong?  Is someone in there?" Anna looked around.  She could feel the presence growing nearer every minute.

            Jenny nodded in response, pointing mutely toward the room she had just left.  Anna, looking slightly puzzled, headed through the door.  All the while, Jenny merely sat there, rocking back and forth, trying to forget what she had just seen.

            Once again, it had suddenly grown very cold...

            "You say he's where?" Alex stared at her grandfather's ghost in utter disbelief.

            "In Cambodia, I believe." Dr.  Roivas said with a sigh.  "He was supposed to be flying down to Florida to inform Dr.  Lindsey, but..."

            Alex was no longer even listening.  Instead, she had slumped down on her bed, looking up at the ceiling as though saying a silent prayer to maintain what precious little sanity she had left.  "And *why* is he in Cambodia?" 

            "He wanted to accompany Dr.  Lindsey.  He said to tell you what happened if you came back."

            Alex, by this point, was beginning to regret going back to her dorm.  At first, it had seemed like the logical course of action; after all, now that Jen and Colin knew about the Tome and the Ancients, there was really no point in hiding any longer.  Besides, she had been bored and running out of money to boot.  Of course, here at her dorm, her situation was hardly any better.  Jenny was all the way up in Rhode Island, and Colin was on the opposite shore of the Pacific Ocean.

            "Great." She replied, not bothering to move.  "Just great.  Of all the times..." 

            For a moment, neither she nor her grandfather's spirit spoke.  The silence felt uncomfortable and awkward.  For some reason, Alex felt as though she should be saying something to her grandfather, though she was unsure of exactly what. 

            "I'm going out for a drive." Alex announced, after a few minutes of such silence.  She felt slightly guilty for leaving her grandfather alone again, but the guilt was overridden by the need to do something–anything. 

            "Where are you going?" Dr.  Roivas turned to his granddaughter as she picked up her car keys.

            "I don't know.  Nowhere.  Anywhere.  It doesn't matter.  I'll be back in a minute." With that, she walked out and closed the door before any more could be said.

            As she turned the key in the ignition, Alex hesitated momentarily.  Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to be taking off again, especially after she had just come back.  Maybe Grandpa had wanted to talk to her.

            But then, she looked back at her dormitory.  _I'm already in the car. _ She thought.  _I may as well just go.  Besides, I don't want to have to tell Grandpa what happened. _ She turned the key in the ignition, shifted into reverse, and backed out of her parking spot.

            After having walked everywhere for the past few weeks, driving felt really good.  It wasn't even the fact that she was going anywhere.  It was more the feeling of the steering wheel in her hands; the vehicle responding to her every command; the fact that, for a change, something would actually do what she told it to. 

            Feeling much more vivacious than she had in weeks, Alex flipped on the radio.  It was already set to one of her favorite stations; a classic rock station. As though life in general had taken it upon itself to try and brighten her mood, one of her favorite songs happened to be playing at that very moment.  Feeling better, Alex sat back and hummed along.

            It only took about a half-hour for Alex to stop thinking about where she was or where she was going.  Occasionally, an idea of where she might like to go would enter her mind, but it wouldn't stay there very long.  After all, she didn't really need a destination by this point.  The aimless driving had turned out to be just what she needed.

            Then, something pulled her out of her distraction. 

            Normally, the presence of the centurion's ghost wouldn't have shocked her.  She had almost gotten used to him being there.  It was the fact that he had removed his helmet and was singing along to her car radio that struck her as very, very wrong.

            Almost too flustered to think, Alex pulled onto the shoulder and hit the brakes.  Then, she turned around to face Pious.  "What the hell are you _doing_?"

            Pious stopped singing along, giving her his usual sideways glance.  "Why is it that, no matter what I do, you seem to have a problem with it?"

            Alex sighed, barely restraining herself from screaming.  "Pious, why are you in my car, why are you singing along to the radio, and, equally to the point, how did you know the words?"

            Pious opened his mouth, but Alex cut him off.  "And I do not want any cryptic, avoid-y crap, and I _definitely_ do not want to hear about..." She hesitated, searching for a name to assign to her double.  "..her.  Okay?  I want an answer." Just to further emphasize her point, she flipped off the radio.

            Pious sighed, then turned to her.  "I'm here because I wanted to be.  Contrary to what you apparently believe, not every last thing I do has an underlying purpose."

            Alex stared at him incredulously for a moment, then rested her head on the steering wheel, looking exhausted.  "I don't understand you in the slightest." she said.

            "Good.  You're not supposed to.  Now keep driving."

            Alex glared at him.  "Don't tell me what to do." She snapped.  "You've got quite a lot of explaining to do."

            "About what?" Pious asked.  "I just told you, not everything I do has an underlying purpose."

            "I don't mean that."

            "Well, then...?"

            "You can start with why you've been stalking me, what _she_ has to do with anything, and why you have been making a point of avoiding every question I ask–and if you disappear on me again, Pious, I swear to you, I don't know how, but I will make your afterlife miserable for the remainder of eternity.  Are we clear?"

            Pious just laughed, which only made Alex even madder.  Here she was, trying to figure out what was going on for once, and he was laughing at her.  He wasn't even giving her the dignity of an _evil_ laugh–he was just laughing because he thought what she had said was funny.  Alex didn't bother to speak.  After all, what did you say to someone in this situation?

            After Pious had finished laughing, Alex shot him a glare.  "Are you finished?"

            Pious nodded, still half-smiling.

            "Good.  Now if you don't mind, I'd like an answer or two." She took extra care to lace every syllable she spoke with the most acidic form of sarcasm she could manage.

            Pious sat back in the car seat, which struck her as rather odd, since he should have disappeared through the back.  "If you insist, Alex.  I doubt you'll like what you hear, though."

            "I don't care.  Start explaining."

            Pious was about to reply, but before he could say anything, Alex cut him off.  "Wait a minute.  You've been blatantly avoiding telling me anything every other time I've asked you, and now you're going to explain everything to me just because I yelled at you?"

            He sighed.  "So are you saying that now you don't want me to tell you anything?"

            "No."

            "Why not?"

            "Because I know that the only reason you're so willing this time around is because you're just going to lie to me."

            "Will I?"

            "Yes, you will.  And, if you don't mind, I'd rather just stay here and be ignorant for a while longer and figure it all out myself."

            Pious gave a satisfied smile.  "If you say so, Alex."

            "Ugh.  I can see why you hated this place." Colin brushed a cobweb out of his eyes as he carefully stepped around a pressure plate.  "And the lighting's terrible to boot.  How did you manage it?"

            "I'm still trying to figure that out, Colin." Dr.  Lindsey commented, looking in disgust around the dim hallway.  It hadn't changed a bit from his last visit, aside from growing more crumbled and mossy.  "I explore places like these for a living, and this one makes even _me_ nervous."

            "It is strange." Ellia looked around.  She seemed sad.  "It has been thousands of years since I was here.  How it has changed since then..."

            Someone absentmindedly stepped on a pressure plate, and a bladed pendulum swung outward from the wall.

            "Although I suppose it's not that much different." She added.  "There just were not as many cobwebs when I was here."

            "Hmm." Lindsey looked around.  "Admittedly, the fact that the undead legions of the Ancients aren't after my flesh this time around does help things a bit." He pointed to a room.  "The stairs down to the first basement are here." 

            "I notice we didn't have to find any more necklaces or dispell any Magicks this time..." Colin commented, stepping carefully down the stairs.  "And we don't have to hack our way through anything.  All that's left are the traps."

            "I suppose, since the Ancients are gone for the moment, they can no longer send out their servants and their Magick in this world." Ellia mused.  The dim light emanating from her ghostly form lit the blackened stairway as well as the flashlights did.

            "Probably." Lindsey concluded, and for a time, the three descended in silence.

            Until now, she hadn't noticed.  She had been riding the metro for a week straight.  One whole week. She had never left, even when the trains pulled back in to the stations.  After all, no one had seen her. 

            Up till now she hadn't even noticed the passage of time.  She had been deep in conversation with the voice.  

            __Stay there_ _ It had told her. __Do not move__Do not let anyone find you__

_            _The time is coming soon, and you must be ready to act__

            __Get off here__

            It was this that had jolted her back to awareness.  The train had come to a stop.  A pleasant, mechanical female voice proclaimed, "Doors opening.", and the train's doors slid open a moment thereafter.  Throngsof commuters pushed and shoved their way through the doors.

            _Why?_

_            _Trust me____Get off the train here__Hurry__

Obeying the voice's command, 'Alex' stood up and left the train.

            __Good___The voice responded. __Now, wait for a while__I want you to take the train that will arrive in ten minutes at this station__

_            Why?  How do you know all this?_

_            _You need to follow my lead because you need to be in a certain place at a certain time__If you do as I tell you to, all will proceed as it should__

Confused, 'Alex' shrugged, took a seat on a nearby bench, and set about once more trying to think up a name for herself.

            _Hide. _ _Hide.  She must not find you._

            Jenny had been hiding.  How long, she wasn't sure.  She couldn't even tell.

            Anna hadn't found her yet, though she was sure that the ghost would be looking for her.  In the back of her mind, in her suppressed consciousness, she vaguely wondered why she needed to hide.

            But the voice was commanding her, and she had no choice but to obey.

            _Hide for just a bit longer.  Soon, this will end.  You–_I_–will need to hide no more._

            "What do you _mean_ it's blocked off?" Colin called out.

            "Come down here and see for yourself." Dr.  Lindsey yelled back.  "The whole thing...well, I guess it didn't really cave in, 'cause the upstairs floor is still intact, but there's all this rubble everywhere...."

            Colin headed down the hallway, toward the sound of Lindsey's voice, and was greeted by a discouraging sight.  The entire corridor was filled to the ceiling with stones and rubble of various sizes.  Colin gave one of the stones an experimental push; it didn't so much as budge.

            "How did this happen?" Lindsey wondered aloud.  "I mean, it can't be a cave-in.  The rest of the temple's intact, and none of this was here when I came here."

            "Does it not strike you as odd?" Ellia commented.  "All the stones are laid in place.  They fit together, like a wall.  It is as though someone actually _built_ this."

            "Do you think you can just go through it, Ellia?" The doctor tapped on the stone.  "I mean, you can go through solid objects, right?"

            "I do not know." Ellia responded.  "Normally, yes, but..."

            "But?"

            "When there is this much Magick present, it limits the ability of we ghosts.  If the wall is too thick, I might become trapped midway through it."

            Colin had stopped listening to them.  Instead, he sighed and leaned against the stone wall.  He was starting to get a headache again; it was damp and hot and muggy inside this temple, and the back-and-forth thinking-out-loud session between Dr.  Lindsey and Ellia probably wasn't helping.  Coming here was starting to look like a colossal waste of time.  They had trekked all the way to Cambodia and evaded the traps all over again–for what?  To have their way blocked by a bunch of rocks?

            In sheer frustration, Colin pounded his fist against the wall.  "I can't believe we came all this way for _this_!" He shouted.  

            It was only after he had finished speaking that he realized that his fist had ended up buried halfway in the wall, cracking the stones themselves like ceramic.

            For a moment, Colin simply stood there, staring in disbelief at what he had just done.  "How the hell...?"

            "Colin, how did you do that?" Dr.  Lindsey walked up to him, tapping on the stone as though to make sure it was solid.

            "I have absolutely no idea." Colin jerked his hand free.  "That has got to be the weirdest thing that's ever--"

            However, all at once, the corridor began to shake.  The sound of footsteps echoed throughout the hall.  Everyone fell silent.

            After just a few moments, the footsteps grew closer.

            "What's that?" Colin looked around.

            "Not a clue.  But it doesn't sound good." The doctor looked around.  "Maybe we should clear out."

            However, no one could say anything more.

            The stone wall cracked, and bits of it fell to the ground.  More footsteps followed, and the wall continued to crumble.  The next moment, it was reduced to rubble and a cloud of dust. Colin, Ellia, and Lindsey looked up in amazement at what was before them.

            Where the wall had once been, a gigantic, twisted creature now stood.  It nearly resembled a spider, but it was spindly and desicate, with too many legs.  The beast had no eyes, but rather a single, mandibled maw, and open, festering sores where it's eyes should have been.  Two of it's cadaverous limbs ended in three-fingered hands.  It made no sound, save for the shaking of the corridor as it walked.

            "What is that thing?" Ellia stared up at it.

            "Mantorok is close by.  He must have sensed our approach and Summoned his Great Guardian." Colin replied.  His voice was level and even; he spoke with absolute calm and certainty in his voice.

            "How did you know that?" Dr.  Lindsey backed away from the creature, which seemed to be 'staring' at them, or as much as it could with no eyes.

            "I don't know..." The fact had just entered his mind, as though it were something he had known all his life.  He couldn't explain his certainty.  It a moment, though, it no longer mattered, as the Mantorok Great Guardian lunged for them.

            __Your train is here__Get on that one__

            Alex started at the sound of the voice.  Once again, she had been daydreaming, trying to think of a name.  She had picked out a few that she very much liked, but few of them were very practical.  

            _What?_

            __Get on this train__Hurry__It will take you where you need to be__

_            But where do I need to be?_

_            _Hurry__Just get on__

            'Alex' obeyed, stepping onto the train just before the doors closed, unseen by everyone else.

            _Which stop should I get off on?_

_            _You won't need to wait for it to stop__

            The doctor's rifle was almost spent, and the Mantorok Guardian had shown no sign of even noticing the bullets.  The bullets merely remained lodged in the molderingflesh of the Guardian.

            No matter what Magick they cast, the Guardian shrugged it off.  The Magick of the three Ancients was meaningless to it.

            "I thought Mantorok wasn't strong enough to Summon its Guardians." Dr.  Lindsey narrowly dodged a strike from the Guardian's clawlike hands.

            "It must have used it's last reserves of strength to Summon it." Ellia shouted back.  "We should turn back.  If the Great Ancient would risk it's death to keep us from seeing it--"

            "We're not going back." Colin protested, reloading his handgun.  "We came to speak to Mantorok, and I'm not leaving till I do." He fired a few shots, which caused the creature to stagger a bit at the impact but not deter it in any way.  

            "You won't be able to if you're dead." Lindsey searched for his kukiri, ducking behind a rock to avoid the Guardian.

            "Don't worry." A smile crept across Colin's face.  "I won't be..."

            Lindsey started.  The boy's voice sounded different; it was deeper, and more even.  He spoke with a certainty that his voice had hitherto lacked.  And, furthermore, the archeologist thought, considering the circumstances, no one should be smiling like that...

            The Guardian's arm reached out for Colin, who dodged just an instant before it reached him.  Dropping his pistol, he grabbed the Guardian's arm with both hands and, with a wet, tearing sound, wrenched it from it's socket.

            The Guardian roared in pain, black, oily blood spilling from it's severed arm.  Colin, perfectly calm, tossed it aside.

            "_Stay back._" He turned momentarily to Dr.  Lindsey and Ellia.  "_You can do nothing._" The deep, firm voice remained, as did the slight, smug smile.

            The Guardian, still staggering, charged toward the boy, spurred on by the boy's calm.  Colin, without so much as blinking, reached out his hand, driving it deep into the Guardian's underbelly.

            The creature's roar turned to a high, ear-piercing shriek, as Colin dragged it down till it sprawled on the floor.  It's arachnoid legs flailed about, scrambling for a firm foothold.  With one swift motion, the boy withdrew his hand, pulling out a handful of the Guardian's sinews and tissues.  Then, still without flinching, he thrust his hand into the sores that served as the Guardian's eyes.  The beast screeched again, flailing about on the floor, then lay perfectly still.

            Colin turned back to the doctor and the ghost, who were staring at him in revulsion.  The boy's hands were black with the Guardian's blood and pus, and a strange, red light was dancing in his eyes.  "_Come._" He ordered.  "_Mantorok awaits us._"

            Lost for words, Ellia and Dr.  Lindsey merely exchanged glances, then silently followed Colin.  The boy walked ahead of them, out of range of the doctor's flashlight, and he did not turn his own flashlight on.  Even so, the darkness did not seem to matter to him.  He walked as though he lived here, even though he had never been here before.  He turned east automatically, coming to the huge, darkened chamber that was the Great Ancient's tomb.  But he had no more than stepped into the room when a voice rang out from the darkness.

            "Get out!" 

            The voice was indescribable.  It seemed to come from everywhere and be a hundred different voices at once.  Ellia and Dr.  Lindsey drew back.

            "That is the voice of the Great Ancient.  It has to be." Ellia looked to Colin.  "We must turn back.  If it wants us to leave--"

            "_We will not turn back!"_ Colin insisted.  "_He is weak and powerless.  He can do nothing to harm us.  He speaks only because he hopes to frighten us away._" with that, he turned to enter the chamber, but Dr.  Lindsey grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back.

            "It's not safe." Lindsey replied.  "Mantorok will feed on humans when it's weak–and now that it's Summoned it's Guardian, it'll be even more desperate."

            In reply, Colin pushed Dr.  Lindsey backwards, so forcefully that the doctor was sent to the ground.  "_Fine then._" He snarled.  "_Stay behind.  After all, how could I expect you to do anything more than cower before the Keeper's feeble power ?_" The boy marched forward, approaching the form of Mantorok in the center of the room.

            "Come no nearer, you damned, wretched creature!" Again, Mantorok's voice filled the chamber.  Colin ignored it, striding confidently toward the dying Ancient.

            "Do not think that I cannot see who you are!  Stay away!  You cannot come here!"

            Reality rippled imperceptibly, and Colin's body flew through the air, slamming into the wall of the chamber.

            "I have not forgotten what happened before.  Do you think I would fall prey to the same scheme twice?" As Mantorok spoke, Colin's eyes rolled in their sockets, and he gasped for air.  A choked cry escaped him, and he writhed in pain.

            "Now go!  Leave this place!" The Ancient ordered.  Colin screamed aloud.  The trace of another voice could be heard, shouting back, "_I will not_!"

            "Get out!" The Ancient shouted.  Colin's body seized up, and two voices cried out in agony.  With that, he slumped to the floor, unconscious. 

            "What happened?" Dr. Lindsey turned to Ellia.

            "I have given the boy back control of his own mind and body."  The Keeper replied.  It sounded tired.  "When he wakes, he will be himself again.  You may enter."

            Ellia and Lindsey hesitantly entered the chamber.  "What was wrong with him?"

            "Something else was acting through him.  Surely you must have seen that.  He came to try to get rid of me." The Ancient was silent for a moment, as the two contemplated what to say.  "Why have you come here?"

            "Great Ancient," Ellia began, bowing in supplication.  The doctor followed suit.  "The three Ancients that plagued humanity have not been defeated.  Soon, they will be revived, and the Keeper of the Light will be powerless to stop them.  We seek your aid in banishing the Ancients, as you are the only one who knows how."

            "I was aware of this, mortal." Mantorok replied.  "What makes you think that I am capable of stopping them?"

            Panic flickered in Ellia's heart; she turned to Dr. Lindsey and saw the same fear reflected in his features.  "Great Ancient, if we knew what was happening--"   

            "Of course you do not know what is happening.  The Ancient's ways are hidden to you."

              "Then what is happening?  What are they doing?" Lindsey asked.

            "Let us wait until the smallest one wakes." The Ancient replied.  "After all, he needs to know this most of all."

            For a moment, the three stood in silence.  Then, Colin stirred.

            "Ow..." He groaned, putting a hand to his aching head.  "Oh lord, my head...what happened?" He looked up, saw Mantorok before him, and froze.  "Oh my god...."

            "Can you hear me, human?" Mantorok's voice resonated throughout the chamber.  Colin nodded, looking very afraid.

            "Good." The Ancient paused, as though waiting for something.  Then, "Before time as mortals know it began, this world belonged to we Ancients and our brethren.  Occasionally, others would rise up, such as the people of Ehn'gah, but all dwindled and faded away, whereas we remained. There was no Veil, for ours was the only reality.

            "How humans became dominant over our grand race, I cannot say.  But when it happened, humans could not accept the power of we Ancients.  We were so far beyond your logic and understanding that our mere presence warped and twisted and, ultimately, shattered your fragile minds.  So, subconsciously, humanity created the Veil; a safe haven of 'normalcy' within which you could live out your lives, shielding yourselves from our sheer superiority.  We Ancients were pushed aside, locked away outside of your precious Reality by a race unable to accept us."

            "Wait." Colin spoke up.  "Does that mean that everything within the Veil isn't real?  That everything here is a lie?"

            "I do not mean that.  The Veil's tapestry merely describes the world as it is without we Ancients.  At first, all it did was paint over our image, block us from your vision.  But in time, as humanity multiplied and spread all across the world, the Veil came to describe the only Reality, the dominant Reality.  Our world–our Reality–became a nonexistence outside of your own.  How odd it seems that a tapestry whose first threads were woven within the warped minds of those driven mad by us came to describe a whole new existence...But I digress.

            "When Xel'lotath, Chattur'gha, and Ulyaoth began to scheme against one another and against humanity, they realized that, in spite of their power, they could not completely breach the Veil.  It was, after all, created by humans to keep the likes of them out.  They tried–they tore and ripped at the Veil, trying to break through it–but found that even the small ruptures they made in Reality were small and quickly mended.  

            "Eventually, however, they discovered that the small tears they made had an effect.  Via these holes, they could create a physical presence through which they could channel their consciousness.  These channels were very small and unobtrusive, but they were the first tenuous foothold that the three had within the Veil.  Unfortunately, to maintain the physical presence of these Essences required a tremendous amount of power.  The three poured the very core of their being into the Essences.  It was a risky move, but, if any mortal were to touch the Essence, that Ancient would be able to transmit their will through the mortal.  The being itself would become a sentient but obedient slave of the Ancient."

            "A Liche..." Dr.  Lindsey stated.

            "Correct.  Now, the Veil can be briefly torn from the outside, but, from the inside, it can be opened almost at will to those with the proper Magick.  Once the Ancient had a Liche within the Veil, that Liche could begin the massive, complicated ritual needed in order to part the Veil long enough for the Ancient to come through.  Once the Ancient is within your Reality, it can rip it to pieces, should it so choose.  However, Ulyaoth, Xel'lotath and Chattur'gha had not this desire.  They wanted to turn the Veil into our reality, to once again take our rightful place within Reality.  In spite of the perfection of this plan, there was one factor in this that the three could not predict."

            "And it was?"

            "The remains of the city of Ehn'gah are still permeated with Magick, as they have been since the moment its population was decimated.  That Magick seeped into the air, imbuing the very atmosphere.  Eventually, those who lived in the Roivas manor–those who were constantly at the very epicenter of that Magickal aura–became more finely in tune to the workings of Magick and the nature of their own reality.  It is for this reason that the Roivas family became the supposed Guardians of Light, spearheading the fight against the three Ancients.  They, and the others who came to the Tome, managed to pit the Ancients against one another.  Their bodies were destroyed, and their Essences were shattered.  But this was not the end.

            "Though the Essences themselves were physically damaged, the damage that the three had done to Reality to make them remained.  Their was still a warping in the Veil, and, since the Essences were unusable but not totally destroyed, they could still use that weakness. Through it, even without the physical presence of the Essences, they could assume control of another mortal being as their Liche.  And, now that their first Liche has been destroyed, they have begun to claim another."

            Lindsey and Ellia both shot hesitant looks at Colin, who seemed to be unaware of it.  Then, Ellia spoke, "What do you mean?"

            "Through the tears they have made in Reality, the Ancients have used their power to take control of the minds and bodies of three more beings, one Liche for each Ancient.  

            "They did not all begin their efforts all at once, however.  The first to begin was the Mad Ancient, Xel'lotath.  She chose a slightly different path this time...

            "She created her own avatar, a sort of living, conscious Essence.  While she was not powerful enough to make this avatar a complete projection of herself, she can still channel herself through it.  When she is not using it, this avatar is a complete, sentient being, with an infant consciousness.  For the moment, it exists independently, out of her control.  Xel'lotath used this avatar, which was a duplicate of her intended Liche, as a way to gain an entryway into the mind of that Liche."

            "And...who is that Liche?" Colin asked, afraid that he could already guess.

            "The Mad Ancient hoped to eliminate the problem of the Roivas family and claim a new servant at the same time.  She modeled her avatar after the Guardian of Light herself, for it was the Guardian that she hoped to claim."

            "Alex?" Colin started.  "Xel'lotath is trying to control Alex?"

            "In a way.  The Avatar is the key to breaking the Guardian's mind.  Since it is constructed as a mimic to the Guardian, but with a newborn mind, it will be easy for Xel'lotath to channel herself through the avatar to the Guardian.

            "However, once the other Ancients realized what she was doing, they were quick to claim their own Liches, and they were not nearly as subtle.  Rather, they used the moments when their powers were at their strongest to take control over the bodies of the Liches.  And, since Xel'lotath had chosen the Guardian as her Liche, the other two Ancients chose humans who were close to her, so that they could instantly kill the Guardian when Xel'lotath gained control."

            The Great Ancient fell silent, and Dr.  Lindsey and Ellia turned to look at Colin.  Colin stared back for a moment, then looked down at his hands, still stained with the black blood of Mantorok's Guardian. 

            "Me?" He whispered.

            "Any blood relations of the Guardian were already dead.  Therefore, the two remaining Ancients chose the two who would be closest to her.  Ulyaoth, the Absent Ancient, chose the other girl as its Liche, the one who is even now hiding in Roivas Manor."

            "Jenny?  You mean Jenny's a Liche too?"

            "She will be soon."

            Colin again looked down at his hands.  "So that means...the last Ancient...Chattur'gha..."

            "Has chosen you as his Liche.  When he can, he has taken control of your mind and body and acted through you.  When you came here today, he controlled you.  He hoped, through you, to finally kill me."  The Ancient paused, seeming to be catching it's breath.  "He needn't have bothered.  Soon, it will be over."

            "What do you mean, soon it will be over?  Why didn't he need to bother?" Colin asked.

            "It has been two thousand years since the first Liche imprisoned me here.  Now, my strength begins to leave me. Before long, I will no longer be an obstacle to the three.  I will no longer be able to help repair the damage the three are doing to your Reality.  They will be able to move unchecked now."

            "That is why we came to you." Ellia replied.  "Is there any way that we could stop the Ancients' advance on our own?"

            "You?  You mortals alone?  I may have chosen you to fight them, but you on your own?  What could you possibly do?"

            "Is there no way?"

            "I do not know.  I have never thought that you could carry on alone–or that you would have to.  I thought that, by the time my strength waned, the three would have been destroyed or banished forever.  But it was not so." He fell silent, and the three hung their heads.

            "There is only one way that I can think of..."

            They all looked up.

            "Most of the Magickal Runic language remains untapped for the purposes of spells; their invocations being either too powerful or too chaotic to be safely used.  In proper combination, these forgotten Runes could create a new Spell; a Spell of such proportions that even the Ancients themselves could fall before it.  However...

            "The use of the Spell in question would be very risky for you.  It can only be used once the Ancients are within the Veil itself.  It requires much preparation, much like the Spell that destroyed Ehn'gah's Guardians.  And there is always the chance that the raw power of the Runes will backfire when one attempts to bind them into a Spell."

            "Once the Ancients are within the Veil?  But by then it will be too late!" Dr. Lindsey

exclaimed.                                            

            "There is no other way.  To use a Spell that effects outside the Veil would tear your Reality to pieces in the process."

            "Then what must we do?" Ellia asked.

            "First, the Runes themselves must be called from their abstract form into a form that can be used for Spells.  To do this, they must be formed from the very threads of the Veil itself.  Then, the Spell itself must be cast within the mechanism of Ehn'gah, while the Ancients are fully within the Veil.  Then, the Spell will be complete, and hopefully, the Ancients will be gone, forever.

            "What are the Runes?" Colin asked.

            "I cannot entrust them to your memory.  My time here grows short.  Their Runic forms will be written here for you.  You must..." The Great Ancient's speech was growing slow and wearied.  "..write them and bind them yourselves."

            "How are we supposed to write and read Runes?  None of us can do that."

            Mantorok's voice had been reduced to a mere whisper.  "The Ancients alone will know..."

            "But if only the Ancients know, how are we supposed to find out?" Ellia cried out.  Mantorok did not respond.

            Silence reigned in the chamber.  The sound of the Keeper's tortured breathing was absent. Then, Dr.  Lindsey spoke up.  

            "Is he dead?"

            "He must be." Ellia responded.  She turned away, but something caught her eye.  "And he kept his word.  Look." She pointed to the object that had caught her attention.

            On the ground lay two Codices, Runic symbols engraved into them.  Dr.  Lindsey picked up one of them, turning it over in his hands.

            "These must be the unwritten Runes." He observed.  "Now how are we supposed to form the actual Runes?"

            "He said that only the Ancients know." Ellia looked up at the still form of the Great Ancient, then turned back to Lindsey.  "But now, the only Ancient that could help us is dead..."

            "Well, maybe, if this Minerva person could see Beyond--"

            But he stopped talking the minute he saw Colin.

            The boy was standing perfectly still, body rigid, fists clenched.  His eyes were tight shut.

            "Run." Colin commanded.  "Run.  Now."

            "What?"

            Colin caught his breath, as though he had just finished running a long way, then continued. "Now that Mantorok is dead, the three Ancients have nothing to stop them.  The last barrier has fallen.  Chattur'gha will be able to take control--" He broke off, clenching his fists tighter.  His body seemed to be shaking.  "I'll become the Liche.  Completely.  When that happens, I don't know what I'll do to you.  You need to get away from me.  Now." 

            When the other two did not respond, he turned to them.  His eyes, now open, shone with red light.  "Go!"

            Taking the Codices, the two obeyed.

            Alone in the chamber with the dead Ancient, Colin sank to his knees.  He struggled to hold still, fighting the Ancient's command.

            "_At last...After two thousand years...finally, it has truly begun..."_

The words were coming from his own mouth.  He bit his lip to keep his mouth shut.  _I won't. I won't.  I'm not going to let you..._

His struggle did not last long. 

            Within moments, the Liche of Chattur'gha stood before the dead Keeper, gazing in triumph around him.

            "_How long was it, Mantorok?"_ He asked the Keeper's corpse.  "_Did you even know?  Did you remember?  How long did you keep from us that which you desired for yourself?"_

He laughed to himself.  "_And now it is over.  The inferior brethren have triumphed over the master.  Even your power to dwell within the Veil has not saved you.  We have won."_

_            "I have won."_

            A shiver ran down Anna's spine.  Something had happened; she knew, she could feel it.  The presence Beyond had surged with strength, and she could tell that it was drawing nearer.

            Just to top it all off, she couldn't find Jenny anywhere, and that wasn't a good sign.  The longer Jenny went missing in this old house, the more susceptible she was to falling prey...

            "Jen?" She called out, her voice hesitant.  "Jenny, where are you?"

            "_I'm afraid she isn't here anymore._"

            The ghost wheeled around, caught by surprise.  Jenny was standing behind her, perfectly calm, speaking in a deep, cold, measured voice that was obviously not her own.  In spite of herself, Anna backed away.

            "_It is over, Roivas._" Jenny's half-lidded eyes, which had turned ice blue, fixed Anna with an unblinking stare.  "_Your sad attempts to protect the girl from me were useless, as I am sure you knew they would be.  Mantorok is dead.  He has no more power over us._" A smile played across the Ulyaoth Liche's lips.  "_It will be a matter of days at most before the last of your kin falls prey to the living Essence of Xel'lotath.  And after that..._"

            The Liche turned it's back to Anna, then looked up at the ceiling.  A vortex of blue light opened up out of nowhere, and Anna could feel the Veil straining under this defiance of Reality.

            "_The balance has disappeared._" It said, speaking more to itself than to Anna.  "_While there is no balance, both are at my mercy._"

            It said no more, merely disappearing into the portal, which vanished the instant the Liche was gone.

            __Now__

The subway screeched to a halt, much to the confusion of the passengers.  Unseen by them all, the avatar of Xel'lotath smiled.  This was it.  It had to be.  It was finally beginning.

            _What do I do?_

            __Do nothing__Just let me guide you__

The lights in the train car flickered on and off; the doors began to open and bang shut repeatedly.  The commuters looked around, unsettled.

            __It has at last begun__The answers you seek will not be far behind__

            'Alex' closed her eyes for a moment and let her consciousness surrender to the voice.  The voice became her brain; it told her body what to do and that body happily obeyed.

            The Xel'lotath Liche looked up, smiling to herself.  The ceiling of the metro car suddenly peeled away, like paper with a hole being torn in it.  The laughter of the Mad Ancient rang throughout the tunnel as the Liche, her eyes shining green, rose up into the air, the ground opening above her.

            Alex struggled to keep her car on the road.  Nausea and vertigo had overtaken her; the whole world outside her car seemed to be spinning.  She wildly spun the steering wheel, trying futilely to regain her balance. 

            In a few moments, the dizziness passed, and she found herself on the side of the road with her car tilted on it's side.  Pious, obviously, had disappeared.

            Confused, Alex fumbled for her seat belt, wondering what had just happened.

            "Alex?  Alex, are you alright?"

            Alex looked up in surprise and found herself face-to-face with a ghost.

            Instantly she recognized him.  It was the same ghost that had appeared to protect her when Alex Number Two had tried to attack her.  She remembered that the double had called him...

            At that, her seat belt came undone, and she fell to the bottom of the overturned car with a thud.

            "You okay?" The host repeated.  He held out a hand.  "Here, let me help you."

            Alex briefly wondered how she was supposed to take the hand of a ghost, then accepted his outstretched hand.  Surprisingly, it felt solid, though it was terribly cold.

            With the ghost pulling her up, Alex clambered out of the car.  "Who are you?" She asked, although she was sure she knew the answer.

            The ghost looked embarrassed.  "My name is Jonathan Roivas."

            "My father." She replied. 

            Jonathan nodded, then looked away.  "I'm surprised you remember me.  The last time we saw each other, you were only four." He looked back at her.  "You've grown up so much, Alex. You look just like your mother, do you know that?"

            Alex smiled shyly, at a loss for what to say.  Thankfully, Jonathan spoke again before an awkward silence could settle in. 

            "There's a lot I'd like to talk about, but I'm afraid that now isn't the time.  The Keeper of the Ancients is dead, and the Ancients themselves have taken control of their Liches.  We have to hurry back."

            "Wait.  They've what?  What are they doing?  What Liches?" Alex asked.  "What's going on?"

            "I can't answer all of those questions for you." Jonathan apologized, turning to walk away.  "Ellia and Dr.  Lindsey will be back soon.  They will be able to tell all of us what we need to know."

            "Ellia and Dr.  Lindsey?  What about Colin?  Is he alright?  And how are they going to get back here from Cambodia?"

            "Colin isn't dead.  He won't be meeting you though.  At least, not in a way that you'd expect.  As for how they're getting back...I can't explain it.  I'm sorry." He sighed.  "Come on. We need to get back to your dorm quickly, before--"

            But he was cut off.  The sky, which had been blue before, had turned stormy gray, and lightning flashed across the clouds without making a sound.  An ice blue nova lit the sky like a sun, while beside it, a red hole had opened up in the air.  All the while, Xel'lotath's laughter echoed across the city.

            "Oh no." Jonathan looked up.  "Hurry.  We have even less time than I thought we did.  It's already begun."

            Before Alex could argue, Jonathan grabbed her by the wrist and ran ahead.

End Chapter 8 

A/N: YES!!  IT'S OVER!!  WOO HOO!  Chapter 8 is FINALLY OVER!!  Oh YEAH!!!

Ahem.  Thank you.  That will be all.  Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you all enjoy Chapter 8!


	9. The Gathering

 SEQ CHAPTER h r 1**Eternal Darkness: Origins**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

Disclaimers: Oh, hallelujah, Chapter 8 is OVER!  Oh, YEAH!!  Ahem.  Sorry.  Got a bit distracted there.  Anyway.  Nothing's mine.  At least, nothing recognizable.  But Jen, Colin, Minerva, Anna, Jonathan, and Alex Number Two who is really the Evil Psycho Xel'lotath Liche do belong to me!  (If you didn't know about that last part, you shouldn't be reading this chapter yet.)

Chapter 9 The Gathering 

_            Minerva stood alone at the window, looking out at the streets below.  The Liches had arrived.  _

_            By instinct, the Liches would fight amongst themselves until only one remained.  However, with Mantorok gone, the balance amongst the Ancients had been thrown off.  It was impossible to predict who would emerge victorious.  In fact, it was quite possible that none of them would; that their masters would stop them before anything could happen. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, she didn't care to contemplate._

_            Beside her stood the ghost of Pious, looking out on the same scene.  _

_            "Vale, Pious." She turned to him, speaking in Latin.  "Why are you here?"_

_            "Vale, Minerva." He replied, surprised at how easily his language came to him after 2,000 years.  "I came to watch, just like you." He was silent for a moment, then looked back at her.  "The Keeper is dead, is he not?"_

_                        "He is." She nodded. _

_            "I see." He turned back to the scene unfolding below.  "I have never understood why humans did not see the Keeper in the same light as the three.  After all, Mantorok was no less maleficent towards humanity.  He merely could not do anything about it."_

_            "Indeed." Minerva agreed.  "The Ancients have only one thing in common, and that is their hatred for us._"

            "_And yet you helped Mantorok, in a way, by fighting against the three.  You helped him, even though you knew that, given the chance, he would gladly retake Reality from humanity." Pious smiled to himself.  "In a way, you were like me.  A Liche.  A servant."_

_            "Perhaps." Minerva conceded.  "But remember, I could hear the three Ancients speak.  I knew that, when they decided to retake Reality, their first goal would be to get the Keeper out of the way." She too smiled.  "So even if I helped him in the beginning, he would be no threat."_

_            "Excellent thinking." The centurion commented.  "No less than I would expect from the Tome's creator.  But your efforts have been for naught.  The Ancients have counterattacked, and they have learned from their defeat.  They will not make the mistakes they did before."_

_            "I was not aware that they made mistakes." Minerva replied sarcastically.  "Only that unforeseeable details arose."_

_            "I mean the Tome, Minerva.  They likely have learned of the Tome's powers.  They will ensure that it will never be used against them again.  And there is also the matter of the Guardian of Light..."_

_            "What about her?"_

_            "Surely you can tell." Pious did not look her way.  "It is only a matter of time before she is claimed by Xel'lotath.  The Guardian of Light will become the Liche.  And you, Minerva, will have one less ally."_

_            "I still have the other ghosts with me, and the last living Chosen besides."_

_            "Do you really think that that will be enough?"_

_            Minerva didn't answer._

            Dr.  Lindsey looked up, disoriented.  The dark, dreary interior of the temple had been replaced by a steel-grey sky.  Red, blue, and green light filled the air. Colin–the Liche of Chattur'gha, rather–had vanished from sight for the moment.  Ellia hovered rather uncertainly next to him.

            "Where are we?" He asked Ellia, getting to his feet.

            "I believe we are back in Washington.  This is where the Keeper of the Light lives.  Minerva and the Tome are here as well."

            "And, refresh my memory, how did we get here?"

            "I do not know." Ellia apologized.  "I believe that the Chattur'gha Liche must have transported himself here.  We must have been caught in the spell's effect area."

            "Hmm.  Well, that does explain a lot." Lindsey looked around.  "Where should we go?"

            "Back to Minerva and the Keeper, I should expect. They will be awaiting us--" Ellia trailed off, staring at the sky behind Lindsey.  Lindsey followed her gaze.

            Amid halos of light, three seemingly human beings stood apart from one another.  Colin was among them.  One of them–a blond, green-eyed girl dressed all in black–was speaking to the other two.

            InterestingShe smiled. I suspected that you would attempt to counteract my effortsEven so, the advantage is mineThe Guardian of Light will soon serve me

            With that, she disappeared, and the other two shortly followed suit.

            "What were they talking about?" Lindsey asked, as Ellia hurried along.

            "That was most likely the avatar of Xel'lotath." Ellia replied.  "He hopes to claim the Guardian of Light as her Liche soon.  If I am not mistaken, though, the others will try to kill the Guardian before Xel'lotath can claim her.  We should get back to the Guardian and Minerva as soon as possible." Ellia added, turning back to him.  "I expect they will want to hear what we have learned."

            Alex leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling.  "I guess that would explain why she's been following me around." She concluded.  "But why was she goofing off at the art museum if she's the embodiment of an Ancient?"

            "Mantorok told us that, when Xel'lotath wasn't using her as an avatar, she was a normal person, but with...he called it an 'infant consciousness'. I think she's like a little kid in Alex's body.  Or something." Dr.  Lindsey stared out the window.  "Frankly, I'm finding it a little hard to believe myself."

            "No wonder." Alex finished, looking expectantly at the ghosts and Lindsey.  "So what can we do about it?"

            "Very little." Ellia replied.  "We are supposed to form two new Runes to create a new Spell.  It will destroy the Ancients, but only once they are within the Veil."

            "Within the Veil?" Jonathan looked surprised.  "I thought that the whole point was for the Ancients _not_ to enter the Veil.  If they're allowed to enter, than even if we have the Runes, it will be too late by the time we cast a Spell.  They will have had their way with our world."

            "And there's another matter to consider." Anna added.  "Xel'lotath won't enter the Veil without her Liche.  And the Ancients have to be within the Veil in order for the Spell to be effective.  If we allow Xel'lotath to enter the Veil, then we have to allow her to take Alex."

            "This isn't a good situation any way you look at it." Lindsey concluded.  "Plus, there's the problem of the Runes--"

            A sound of shattering glass and splintering steel cut him off, and Jenny–the Ulyaoth Liche–flew across the room, not stopping until she hit the wall on the opposite side.

            Anna, Jonathan, and Edward were quick to react, coming between Alex and the Ulyaoth Liche.  However, it payed them no notice.  Instead, it glared out at the sky through the hole it had left in the wall.  Levitating just outside of the hole in the wall, a smile on his face, the Chattur'gha Liche stared back.

            The Ulyaoth Liche disappeared into a blue portal, reappearing just behind the Chattur'gha Liche.  He turned around just in time, avoiding a blow to the back.

            Anna got up.  "We're leaving." She stated.  "Now."

            Alex was about to protest, but Anna cut her off.  "It's not safe for you here.  If we stay, the avatar will hunt you down in minutes.  We're leaving." She took Alex by the wrist and ran toward the door, and once again, Alex was surprised that the ghost's hand felt solid.  Minerva and the other ghosts followed close behind, instants before a Spell from the Chattur'gha Liche reduced the wall to splinters.

            "What are we going to do now?" Jonathan asked in frustration, looking up at the Liches.  "If we don't have a way to get to the Runes..."

            "There is nothing we can do." Minerva said bluntly.  "We cannot fight back, not for long. And we cannot keep Alex hidden forever.  Eventually the avatar will find her.  And, even if we had the Runes, we could not use them, because the Ancients must be within the Veil for the Runes to be used." She sighed.  "All we can do is keep running as long as we can and hope we learn what we need to do."

            Perhaps a mile away, the Liches were still locked in combat; their Spells devastating the area around them.  The streets were vacated, save for the twisted wrecks of what had once been cars, but one could just observe crowds of people gathered at the windows of the hotels and offices, watching in confusion.

            As they watched, the avatar just barely danced out of the way of the Chattur'gha Liche's fists, laughing as she did.  Before she could retaliate, the Ulyaoth Liche suddenly appeared behind her, gripping her by the wrist.  Blue lightning crackled up the avatar's arm, and she briefly cried out in pain.  Then, the Chattur'gha Liche took advantage of the momentary distraction and caught the Ulyaoth Liche by the throat, tossing her to the ground.  The Ulyaoth Liche disappeared into another portal, this time reappearing behind the Chattur'gha Liche.

            The avatar caught her breath, then turned to face Alex.  For the first time, Alex noticed that the avatar had let her hair down, letting it fly around her head like smoke in a strong wind.  Her eyes shone vivid green, and as she stared in Alex's direction, she grinned and laughed again.

            That laughter reverberated  in Alex's ears, ringing louder and louder till it seemed to pierce through her, seeping into her mind, drowning her consciousness.  Alex clamped her hands over her ears, but the laughter did not stop.

              Suddenly, the laughter ceased, and Alex chanced a look upward.  The Liches and the avatar were once again at one another's throats, and the avatar seemed to have forgotten about her for the moment.

            "Are you okay, Alex?  What happened?" Jonathan touched her on the shoulder.

            "The avatar." Minerva replied.  "She has seen Alex; she will try to claim her as soon as she can.  We should not stay here long."

            "It won't make any difference if we do." Alex said.  Everyone stared at her, surprised.

            "What are you talking about?" Anna asked.  "Of course it will make a difference–if we keep running, we can keep her from getting to you--"

            "But if Xel'lotath never takes me, the Ancients will never be Summoned.  If we have the Runes, they'll be useless." Alex looked back up at the double of herself.  "Once we find the Runes, I'll have to be taken."

            Anna opened her mouth to protest, but Jonathan cut in.  "You may be right, Alex.  But that's not a problem at the moment.  Let's worry about that once we have the Runes."

            "In the meanwhile, we're getting out of here–Alex, look out!" Anna's voice rose to a shout.  Alex turned around and caught sight of a portal open directly behind her.  She scrambled out of the way just in time to avoid the Ulyaoth Liche, who fell from the portal without taking much notice of her.  Immediately, Anna grabbed Alex's wrist and pulled her back.

            "Come on.  We're going." Anna demanded.

            As Anna dragged her away, Alex looked back, catching sight of the Chattur'gha Liche lunging for the Ulyaoth Liche, a hand outstretched to seize her by the throat.  At the last moment, the Ulyaoth Liche stepped back and opened another portal right in front of her.  The Chattur'gha Liche was too late to turn away, and his arm disappeared into the blue of the portal.  The Ulyaoth Liche then closed the portal around his arm, severing it cleanly from his shoulder.

            The Chattur'gha Liche cried out in pain and clutched at the bloody wound where it's arm used to be, and Alex could hear two voices screaming–the thunderous roar of the Ancient and the unmistakably human voice of Colin.

            But before she could see any more, Anna pulled her away.

            She looked up just in time to see them fleeing.  The Keeper, pulled along by her mother's ghost, looked back at the Liches–at the bodies of her two friends–tearing each other apart.

            The avatar wasn't concerned.  For the moment, it didn't matter if the Keeper ran away.  She couldn't escape for long, After all, everything had been planned perfectly, down to the last detail...

            Still, it couldn't hurt to have a little fun...

            Leaving the two Liches behind, the avatar silently followed Alex. 

            __

            Alex sat down to rest on the side of the road, trying to catch her breath.  The streets were all but empty, most of the people having fled to their homes or offices at the sight of the Liches.  The emptiness of the streets had allowed Alex, Lindsey, and the ghosts to put quite a lot of distance between themselves and the Liches, and the Liches were no longer visible.

            "There's no point," she said, in between gasps.  "In running like this.  It would be better if you went to find the Runes.  I can keep running, buy you some time.  There's no point in you all guarding me."

            It only took one look at Anna to see that that would not be an option.  Anna's mouth had become a tight, thin line, her fists were clenched, and she was glaring, not at Alex, but at the horizon, as though staring at the distant Liches.  With a voice like tempered steel, she said.  "I will not give you up to the Ancients, Alex.  And I will not leave you alone with _her._"

            "Anna..." Jonathan started.  Anna whirled toward him.

            "Don't you remember?" She snapped.  "We gave ourselves up–we gave our lives to keep Alex safe from the Ancients–and you think I'm going to just let her go?"

            Before she could continue, Alex jumped up, looking around frantically.

            "Alex?  What's wrong?" Edward asked.

            "The avatar is here." She replied.  "I saw her just now, and I heard her laughing.  She's following me." She turned to Anna.  "If you want me to run, there isn't much time.  If you want, I can go on alone while you--" She stopped, and her eyes were fixed on a spot in the sky.

            "She's here again?" Anna got up and lay a protective hand on her daughter's shoulder.  Alex flinched at her touch.

            "Yes.  I heard her again." She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.  "You all stay here.  She's not after you.  I should leave now, so you all will still have time."

            "I don't want you to go by yourself, Alex." Anna started, but Alex shook her head.

            "There's no other way.  If you keep following me, it will be to late when you do create the Runes." She took a step backward, putting a hand to her mother's.  "This...we may not see each other again...if we do, I won't be myself.  I won't recognize you..." She sighed.  "If I try to hurt you...I'm sorry."

            Then, before any more could be said, Alex turned and ran.

            The avatar started, caught, for the moment, off guard.  What was she doing?  Why was she running away already?  She hadn't even gotten the chance to really scare her yet.

            Had she still been an empty body, the avatar would have pouted.  This girl was ruining everything. 

            But the fact remained that her prey was trying to escape.  It would take maybe few minutes to catch up to her, and she was certain that the other Liches would notice her own absence soon.  It was best to just finish it all up quickly, before things got complicated...

            Suddenly, everything stopped.

            The observers, watching from within their homes and offices, were surprised to see the combat between the two Liches stop dead.  As one, the Liches turned and stared ahead of them, in the direction that the avatar had gone. 

            A crunching, snapping sound filled the air, and the Chattur'gha Liche's arm had regrown from the empty socket.  The flesh of the arm was pink and new, and in some places the skin had not completely grown in, and the sinew and veins were still exposed to the air.  The Ulyaoth Liche did not seem to notice.  It was focused too intently on the horizon.

            It would not be long before the avatar completed her mission.  If she could be stopped before then...

            For the second time in two thousand years, Chattur'gha and Ulyoath had a common goal.

            And a common enemy.

            The two Liches hurried off to follow the avatar, paying no notice to the silent crowds of humans watching from the windows.

            Alex had to stop and duck into an alley, out of breath and exhausted.  She doubted that she had totally lost the avatar.  She had a few minutes to catch her breath, at most.

            She wondered if Anna had followed her as well.  After all, Anna had not been thrilled with the idea of letting Alex run off alone.  She probably wasn't far behind her now.

            At that moment, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

            Knowing what she would see, Alex slowly turned around.  Sure enough, the blazing green eyes of the avatar stared back at her.

            Before she could say a word, the avatar's icy hand clamped down over her mouth. How long did you think you could run from me, Alex? She asked, her voice echoing that of her master. You could only delay the inevitableNothing more

            Then, all around her faded into nothing, and there was not even the cold of the avatar's hand nor the beacon of her eyes to tether Alex back to reality...

            _She did not know where she was or how she got there.  She was in a narrow hallway, which disappeared into the darkness with no visible end.  The walls looked as though they were made of stone, but, upon_ _closer inspection, amorphous images seemed to flit through the stone wall like shadows._

_            "Where am I?" She heard her own voice, although she had not opened her mouth._

_            Welcome, Alex The avatar appeared behind her, half-lidded eyes sparkling and loose blonde hair twirling in a vortex around her face. Do you like it?I made it myself_

_            "What is this place?" Alex looked up and down the hallway.  The stone seemed to be shifting, as though it wasn't sure whether it really wanted to be a stone wall, or if it would rather be a hedge of briars or a wall of ice._

_            This is your own mind, AlexIt should be quite familiar to you_

_            "What do you mean, my mind?"_

_            This, Alex, is your subconsciousYour dreams, your memories, your thoughts, spun together and shaped into the maze you now find yourself in_

_            "But where did this come from?  How did you make it?"_

_            I had her The avatar indicated herself. She was created with you as a model, after allHer mind was exactly like yours, except hers was newborn–no memories, no dreamsShe was my blank canvas, on which I could experimentI learn to shape and twist her thoughts and her subconscious into whatever shape I desiredBy the time she found you, I could create this maze in your mind in a matter of instants_

_            Now, Alex, I want you to play a little game with you The avatar smiled, a picture of absolute calm. I want to see which of us knows your mind better--you or meIf you can get out of the maze before I catch you, you winBut if I catch you...you loseUnderstand?_

_            Alex nodded, knowing that she had little choice._

_            GoodNow, I'm going to be a good sport and give you a head startI would suggest you use itStart running_

            By the time Edward, Jonathan, Lindsey, Ellia, and Minerva caught up with Anna, she was lying beside the unconscious bodies of Alex and the avatar, trying unsuccessfully to wake her daughter.

            "She will not wake, Anna." Minerva walked up to her.  "We are too late.  The avatar found her first."

            Anna was silent for a moment, then turned to the rest of the group.  "This is our chance..."

            "What do you mean?" Minerva looked puzzled.

            "She's unconscious.  If we kill her before Alex is taken--"

            "Their minds are entangled." Minerva cut her off.  "If you kill her, you kill Alex."

            "Anna, now that the avatar has found Alex, the two Liches will try to kill the avatar before Alex becomes a Liche.  We have no time.  We must get Alex and the avatar somewhere safe.  Yes, the avatar too, Anna." She added, in response to Anna's look of ire.  "Otherwise, the Liches will kill her and we will lose Alex." She turned her attention to the rest of the group.  "Edwin Lindsey?"

            Lindsey nodded in response.

            "When we reach a safe place for the two of them, you will guard then with your life.  Do not allow anyone to come near them–either of them.  If the Liches appear, hold them off as long as you can and try to get the two of them away from the Liches.  Do you understand?"

            The doctor nodded again, then asked, "One question.  What do I do when Alex wakes up?"

            "Considering that she will be a servant of Xel'lotath when she wakes," Edward took the limp body of his granddaughter in his phantasmal arms, "I would advise you to get out of her way.

             _ There was no end to it._

_            Alex had been running for what felt like hours, and the maze kept going.  She had long ago stopped trying to remember where she was and where she had already been._

_            The maze changed every time she looked at it.  The hallway she had just run down had stretched out straight behind her; now, as she looked over her shoulder, it seemed to turn off to her left._

_            Alex soon regretted not keeping her eyes on the path.  Instead of solid ground, Alex put her foot down on something that gave way underneath her–something that felt like it was moving.  Losing her balance, Alex fell forward.  She looked back to se what she had landed in and saw what seemed like a million spiders, swarming in a hole in the floor, scrambling manically up her leg, biting her through her clothes._

_            Alex cried out in shock and tried frantically to shake them off, but the arachnids clung to her desperately.  Panicking, she got to her feet and ran blindly through the halls. _

_            Around her, the maze was changing again–the stone became woodwork, and the floor turned to carpet underneath her, and those portraits of all those cold, aloof, distant Roivas' gazed down at her...the maze had become Roivas Manor._

_            The sick perfume of blood floated in the air, and the trio of voices echoed around her–her father's cry of pain as the Great Guardian tore him apart, her mother's last, choked breath, and the sound of a Guardian ripping through her grandfather's flesh..._

Not here_, she thought.  _Please, God, anywhere, I don't care where, but, please, not here...

            _Now the maze rang with the avatar's laughter... _

            Thankfully, the occupants of the street-side café had long since fled, so the building was completely empty Now, with the avatar and Alex locked in the kitchen, all that Lindsey could do was patrol the premesis.

            Granted, a restaurant kitchen was probably not the safest place in D.C., but it had been the closest place that was vacant and reasonably far away from the Liches.  Plus, it was small, dark, and easy to overlook.

            Lindsey wasn't as worried about the Liches as he probably should have been.  After all, the avatar would know that she was being pursued.  She wouldn't linger and longer than she had to.

            He was more worried about what was going to happen when Alex woke up.  Once she became the Xel'lotath Liche, the first thing she would do was escape–most likely killing him in the process.

            Taking a hasty look back at the kitchen, Lindsey tightened his grip on his handgun.  The handgun–and the precious little ammunition he had remaining–was all that he had had with him when he went through the Chattur'gha Liche's portal.  He had only about a clip and a half left, and Minerva had instructed him not to enchant it for fear of attracting the Liche's attention.  He felt terribly vulnerable; it was just him and his ordinary handgun and a few bullets against the supernatural power of the Ancients.

            _The three Ancients will be unleashed on the world Within, all three at once.  The minute they are released, they will destroy each other.  In spite of their efforts, they will accomplish nothing._

_            But, because of their power, their combat will end this world.  The Veil will be ripped to pieces –the curtain that shut the Ancients out of this world will finally fall.  The remaining Ancients, those that still dwell Beyond, will reclaim what is rightfully theirs, and the humans that survive the destruction of the Veil will be driven mad and eliminated by the Ancients._

_            The world shall return to the way it should have been, before humans tainted the universe with their imperfections.  There will be no such blights in the new universe–only the glory and power and perfection of the Ancients and the Eden of darkness..._

_            And you, Guardian...you, Alexandra Roivas, _you_,_ _who were fated to fight the Ancients at every turn..._you_ will begin it all._

Pious indulged in a laugh.  The irony was almost too much.  Humanity's last defender would betray them.

            He could see the last moments in his mind.  All over the world, humans would watch, terrified and confused, as the precious, comforting illusion that their ancestors had built for them was violently stripped away, dissolved before their eyes.  He could hear their fragile minds shatter in the presence of the Ancients.  He could hear them scream, pray, beg for the ignorance and oblivion that they had immersed themselves in.

            And this end would be well-deserved, on the human's part.  After all, what right did they have to the universe?  Had they been greater than the Ancients, had they been more powerful and wise, it would have been different.  One race would have been succeeded by another; such was the natural order of things.  But no, it had not been that way.  A species of inferior, pitiful creatures, no more that insects in comparison to the Ancients, had crawled out of the shadows with nothing, nothing to make them worthy successors of the universe.  Nothing but their fear of the Ancients.  Nothing but their inborn belief that anything greater than them, anything that they could not enslave, had to be driven out–their belief that the universe was _theirs_ by right.

            And yet, with only their belief and their fear, they had driven out the Ancients.  They had taken control of a world they did not understand and could not appreciate.  They had subjected the universe to their ignorance.  They had twisted and defiled it and now marched over it's body as it bled to a slow death.  But now, there would be retribution.  The pestilence of humanity would be swept away.  And he was here, at the epicenter, watching it all.

            _Alex had to stop running.  Once again she was out of breath and exhausted.  She had not yet seen the avatar, but the maze kept changing.  She was fairly sure that she had been running in circles, but more likely the maze had changed around her.  The path she had come down probably did not exist anymore._

_            And it wasn't just the pathways that changed.  Impossible things sprang from the walls and floor wherever she ran.  At some points, the floor had turned to a carpet of glass shards, or Guardians leaped out from the shadows, clutching at her._

_            Alex caught her breath as best she could, then got to her feet again.  But the path ahead of her had vanished, and a solid stone wall had replaced it. _

_            She turned around to run in the other direction, but the path behind her had closed as well.  Now all that was left was perhaps fifteen meters of blank, empty hallway._

_            You seem to have run into a dead end, Alex Startled, she whirled back around.  The avatar stood there, smiling nonchalantly at her. There is only one more way out_

_            Alex ran back the other way, frantically searching for an opening, a way out or up or over the wall.  The avatar walked slowly toward her, unconcerned, taking her time. There is nowhere for you to go, AlexExcept, of course, with me_

_            Alex stared the avatar in the eye, trying to conceal the panic that was working it's way up her spine.  "There never was an exit." She said, quietly.  "Was there."_

_            Of course not She and the avatar were just inches apart now, and the avatar reached out a hand. Why would I give you that chance?Besides, how can you escape from your own mind?_

_            The cold hand now rested on Alex's shoulder, and the next thing she knew she was falling–falling down into a dark emptiness, into a pit with no bottom and no sides, touching nothing, numb with the cold and the rushing of air past her body...and the darkness and silence pressed in on her eyes and ears and skin until it was seeping into her, filling her, crowding out her consciousness–and then there was nothing in her anymore and she was nothing but an empty shadow falling away..._

Back in the world within the Veil, the Liche of Xel'lotath opened her eyes, got to her feet and surveyed the small, crowded kitchen.  The door, she noticed, had been locked and bolted–for all the good it would do.

            On the floor next to her, the avatar stirred and held a hand to her head.  She looked up at the Liche, and her eyes were black.  "Is it..."

            I promised you that the answers would not be far behind, once this all beganYou have your answerAre you satisfied?

            "What?  What do you mean?"

            The Liche ignored her.  Instead, she walked toward the door, which twisted and shuddered and tore off it's hinges.  She entered the empty café, noticing that the human Lindsey was nowhere in sight.  He must have known what happened and fled already.  Not that it mattered, really...

            Seconds later, everything shattered.  Fragments of glass and steel and insulation poured down like rain.  The Liche walked, untouched, through the clouds of metal and debris.

            The avatar was not so fortunate.  Falling glass and metal fragments cut at her skin and filled the air and ground at her lungs when she breathed them in.  Panicked, she ran blindly through the cloud, reaching the outside only seconds before the Liche did.

            "I don't understand what you mean." She gasped, coughing as she spoke.  "I don't know the answer.  Why can't you just tell me?"

            The Liche sighed impatiently. You were my key She explained. You were my way inThrough you, I could learn how to break the Keeper's mindThat os what you were created forNothing more

            "But you've already done that, haven't you?"

                        Yes

            "So what do I do now?"

            The Liche began to look angry. The lock has been openedYou are of no further use to meGo do whatever you pleaseIt matters not

            At that, the Liche disappeared.

            The avatar stared into space, focused on nothing, lips moving soundlessly as though trying her hardest to grasp what had just been said to her.  Eventually, three whispered words escaped her.

            "I don't know..."

            She was shaking now.

            "I don't know.  I don't know what to do.  I don't know what I want to do.  I don't know anything.  I need you...I need you to tell me...I don't know anything..."

            Her whispers turned to shouts.

            "Come back!  Please, please come back.  I need you–I don't know anything–please, _tell me what to do_!"

            This time, there was no answer.

End Chapter 9   


	10. Ethrion, Abraxas

1**Eternal Darkness: Origins**

**Resurrection of the Mad Goddess**

Disclaimers: Nothing belongs to me. I can't think of funny disclaimers anymore.

A/N: Many, many thanks to Todd for all his help on this and future chapters! Couldn't have done it without you!

Chapter 10 Ethrion, Abraxas

* * *

"Come to watch the show?" Pious asked the avatar. She didn't respond. 

The two were sitting on a park bench on a gravel road. Pious sat watching the sky, hoping to catch sight of the Liches. The avatar, however, was slumped over in her seat, staring at the ground. She had not spoken at all since the two had met.

"Why so quiet?" He asked her. "Is this not a cause for celebration? The Ancients will finally take back that which is rightfully theirs."

The avatar still did not speak. Pious leaned forward, facing her.

"You are not still upset over this, are you?"

"Why shouldn't I be?" She said, miserably. "She's gone. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know anything anymore."

"You don't know what you're supposed to do?" Pious leaned back and looked up at the sky again. "You're not supposed to do anything. Whatever you do now will not make any difference; it will be perhaps days before the Veil is torn apart."

She looked up at him, timidly. "So I should just sit here and wait with you? Is that what I should do?

"I cannot tell you what you should do." He answered. "Do whatever you care to. It does not matter."

"But I don't know what I want to do." She protested. "I don't want anything...actually, no, that's not right. I want her back. I want her here so she can tell me what I should do."

Pious didn't respond, but the avatar continued. "I don't understand. If she was just going to leave me here, why did she make me a living being? Why did she make me conscious? Why didn't she just kill me?"

"Did you want her to?"

She nodded, looking as though she was about to cry. "I guess...it would have been better than being alone like this..." She shivered in spite of the midday warmth. "I hate this. I hate being alone."

"If it's any consolation," Pious replied, "You will not have to be alone for very long. Soon, the rest of humanity will join you in death."

"So I should just wait? Is that what you're saying I should do?"

"I'm not telling you to do anything." He sighed, sounding vaguely annoyed. "The choice is yours to make. You can stay here and wait to die or you can do something else with what time you have left."

The avatar was silent. She looked up at the clouds, wringing her hands anxiously. _Before she left_, she thought, _she told me to do whatever I wanted to do._

_But she didn't mean it as an order...it was just a thoughtless statement. She didn't need to tell me to do anything. She meant for me to stay here and die... _

_So that's what I should do, isn't it?_

_Isn't it?_

_No. It can't be. She said to do whatever I wanted._

_You must want something. _A different voice spoke this time. It was her own, and yet it sounded unfamiliar. It reminded her of Alex's voice.

_Alex? Is that you?_

The second voice didn't answer.

_What I want..._she thought. _What I want, more than anything, is for her to come back and guide me–_

_Why? _The other voice asked. _Why would you want her back? So she can abandon you like she did before?_

_But she wouldn't abandon me. That's the whole point. _

_She has no use for you. Even if you were with her again, she will not tell you what to do. Nothing you do will matter to her._

_Then I should do nothing?_

_No. _The voice was emphatic. _If you don't want her to desert you again, you must do something that _will_ matter. Otherwise, you will remain insignificant. You will vanish into oblivion with all the rest._

_But what will matter?_

_Prevent the inevitable. Stop her from reentering this world._

_What? Why would I do that?_

_Because nothing else will matter. If you prevent her from entering the veil, she will know that she cannot abandon you. You will not be insignificant to her. She will need you once again._

The avatar didn't answer. The very concept of working against the Ancient was so alien that she could barely even think about itAnd yet...it made sense, in a way. If she did that, then Xel'lotath could not ignore her.

And, somehow, the idea itself seemed satisfying...

_I suppose you're right...but how would I do that?_

Anna hadn't spoken since Dr. Lindsey had returned. Jonathan had attempted to talk to her a few times alone, but the ghost refused to say a word.

"It will not be long before the Liches summon their masters." Minerva's voice was quiet, and she wrung her hands together unconsciously. "No more than a week, at most."

"Why a week?" Dr. Lindsey asked.

"Even though they do not have to wait for the planetary alignment, there are still a few preparations that need to be made. Besides, it will take them a moment to stop tearing at each other's throats."

"Pious needed two thousand years to summon his Master." Lindsey added. "Why will it only take a few days this time?"

"Because Pious already prepared everything the last time." She had gone from wringing her hands to plucking anxiously at her robes. "Everything is in place. All they need to do is speak the incantations."

The sound of footsteps cut off further conversation. The ghosts looked up to see a figure walking toward them. She was a long way off, but she was still recognizable as the avatar.

Anna's hand clenched into a fist. "What does _she_ want?" She hissed.

"Are you sure that's her?" Jonathan questioned. "She has no reason to be here. Besides, wouldn't she be teleporting instead of just walking?"

"Now that Alex is the Liche of Xel'lotath, perhaps the avatar no longer has her powers." Edward stated.

"I don't care if she has her powers or not." Anna simply glared. "Why is she here?"

"Wait." Minerva spoke again. "There's something...different about her. I don't think she is here to hurt us. Let her speak."

"If you insist." Anna's hand was still in a fist.

The avatar walked up to the ghosts, looking around uneasily at them. "Um..." she said, "You all are looking for the Runes, aren't you?"

"Yes..." Minerva looked puzzled.

The avatar took a breath, trying to steady her nerves, and said "I know how you can find them."

For a moment, the ghosts silently stared at her, at a loss for what to say. The avatar fidgeted for a moment, then repeated, "I can show you where and how to find the two new Runes. I know this sounds crazy, and I know you probably don't believe me, but-"

"You're right." Anna cut her off. "I don't believe you. Why would you be here to help us?"

The avatar looked away. "I'm afraid I don't have a good reason for you to believe me. It...I...none of this makes sense, even to me. I don't know how to explain it..." She paused, then said, "I want to help you find the Runes because it's the only thing that will matter anymore. If I don't...There's nothing else I can do, don't you see?" The faintest traces of panic showed on her face. "If I don't do something-anything-that will make any difference, she'll never come back, and I'll die with the rest of you, and I'll still be nothing."

As the avatar stopped talking, the ghosts looked at one another, nonplused. "I'm still not convinced." Anna said, keeping an eye on the avatar.

"Annie..." Jonathan put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a minute? Dad, Minerva, Dr. Lindsey, you too."

The others congregated around Jonathan, who asked "What do you think?"

"What do you mean, what do we think?" Anna looked incredulously at him. "You're not telling me you _believe _her?"

"No, not really. But I think, for now, we have to trust her."

Anna opened her mouth to protest, but no sound came out.

"Why?" Edward continued for her. "Jonathan, remember who she is. Believing her would be suicide; I'm quite sure she is deceiving us."

"She probably is." Jonathan conceded. "But we have no idea where to find our Runes. She might. If she is telling the truth–and I'm not saying she is–then she's the only chance we've got. And I'd rather run the risk of being betrayed than pass up the only opportunity we might have."

"Is there even a chance that she's telling the truth?" Minerva protested. "Why would she?"

"I...Well, I'm not certain. I only have a theory. Lindsey, you said that Mantorok told you the avatar had an infant consciousness, right?"

Lindsey nodded. "So you're saying the avatar might not have known what she was doing?"

"Exactly. I think that, now that Xel'lotath isn't controlling her, the avatar may not think like the Ancient anymore. Her thoughts and actions may be independent now. I know it sounds farfetched." Jonathan admitted. "And I know we're taking a huge risk trusting her. But I think we have to take that risk. It's our only chance." He looked around. "So, what do you all think of that?"

"I think you're crazy." Anna replied.

"I figured as much. What about you, Dad? Minerva? Doctor?"

The three looked uncertainly at Jonathan and at one another. Then, one by one, they nodded.

"I can go along with this for now." Edward stated. "But I can't say I believe it."

Jonathan nodded in reply, then turned to the avatar. "You said you could show us the Runes." He said to her. "Where are they?"

The avatar sighed, apparently in relief, and explained. "We need to head for Ehn'gah."

"All the way to Ehn'gah?" Minerva asked. "Why?"

"The Runes already exist as characters in a Magical alphabet," she replied, "but to actually use them in Spells, you need to...weave them, I guess. You need to arrange the threads of the Veil to describe the Rune and what it does. Since Ehn'gah's got so much Magic floating around, it'll be easier to manipulate the Veil."

"None of us know how to form Runes from the Veil." Lindsey pointed out.

"Leave that to me."The avatar replied.

"But how do you know all this?" Minerva's voice came from nowhere; though she was obviously traveling along with the others in the car, no one was sure of where exactly she was. "Only the Ancients would know how to form the Runes from the Veil."

"I'm not sure." The avatar was sitting in the passenger's seat of Colin's car, which he had left at the dorm in favor of taking a taxi to the airport. A convenient set of spare car keys on his dresser meant that Lindsey, the avatar, and the ghosts were now heading for Rhode Island as fast as the car would take them. "I just...know it. I mean, while I was still me, I didn't know it, but after she acted through me, I did..."

"I think that, while she was controlling you, her mind occupied yours. You shared her thoughts and memories, which is why you remember them now." Edward suggested. He, Jonathan and Anna were seated in the back of the car.

"If you say so." The avatar looked out the window. "Are we almost there? It's been a while."

"This last part's going to take the longest." Lindsey replied. "The roads outside the District haven't been evacuated. We might hit traffic, not to mention we won't be able to go a hundred miles an hour anymore."

"We will if we take this exit." Edward pointed to a road sign. "It's not as crowded as the interstate. Turn off here."

Lindsey obeyed, veering sharply to reach the exit ramp. The avatar gasped, clutching her armrests. "Please," she said, her voice quavering, "Never do that again."

"They haven't followed us." Jonathan looked around as he hovered out of the car. "How long do you think we have?"

"Not very." Minerva reappeared just outside the door to the manor. "They will notice what we have done soon. You are going to have to hurry." Her last comment was directed at the avatar.

"I don't know if I'll be able to do this in a hurry." The avatar protested. "I've never done anything like it before."

Minerva nodded, then turned to Anna. "Was it locked when you were here with Jenny?"

"It was." Anna replied, speaking for the first time since the avatar had joined them. "It was thick with Magick too. I couldn't even get through it. This time, though..." She floated through the door, and a few moments later the door opened. "No problem. I guess now that the Liche's gone..."

The avatar ignored her, running over to the basement door and disappearing as the door slammed shut.

Ehn'gah was huge–imposingly, intimidatingly huge. The grey towers of the necropolis loomed over her, like a graveyard as seen by an ant.

The avatar was deep in the city now, far from the plaza and the Spell circle, and she was beginning to regret having run off. The necropolis was silent and empty, and the slightest noise she made echoed and magnified a thousand times.

The weave of the Veil was almost visible here; vivid streaks of light briefly illuminated single threads. The Veil became more tangible with a greater concentration of Magick, the avatar remembered that much. But why here?

_This must have been where the Guardians used more of their Magick._ She mused, following a single thread down a back alley. _Which means this is where they did more killing...more eating..._

"Why'd you run off?"

The avatar jumped, surprised. She turned to find Anna standing behind her. "Oh..." She said. "Sorry, I shouldn't have...I think I found something I might be able to use, and I didn't want to lose track of it." She looked back behind her shoulder, but the thread had vanished.

"What did you find?" Anna seemed more curious than suspicious.

"The Veil is easier to manipulate here. I may be able to form the Runes." She looked at the ground. "You're talking to me."

"Yes?" Anna looked confused.

"You didn't before."

This time the ghost looked away. "Actually, I was thinking about that on the way here–what are you doing?"

The avatar had her back to Anna and was holding something in her hand. White light streamed through her fingers"A thread of the Veil." she explained. "Do you have the Codices?"

"No, I don't; Dr. Lindsey has them-"

"I'm going to need them. Find Dr. Lindsey and bring the Codices. I will be here when you return." The avatar didn't turn around or even shift her focus from the light in her hand. Anna hurried away.

The avatar pulled her hand back, and the light coalesced into a single bright thread, humming with tension–although 'humming' was perhaps not the right word for it. She could hear the sound it was making, but she could also see it and feel it and smell it and taste it and sense it in a hundred different ways that there weren't words for yet. She reached out into empty air and her fingers caught on a second thread, then a third, then a fourth. She brought the glowing streamers together in her hands, braiding them and weaving them together. The smallest trace of a pattern was begginning to appear, and a whispered voice danced on the edge of her hearing. The Veil was speaking, describing the pattern she was weaving thread by thread.

It never even occurred to her to question what she was doing. There was no doubt in her mind how the Runes were to be formed; all she needed was the proper name, the proper pattern, and everything else would come naturally. It was as though she had been doing this all her life.

"Here. I have the Codices." She heard Dr. Lindsey's voice somewhere behind her.

"Good. Read me the first one." She didn't look up from her work.

"'Abraxas.'" He recited. "I can't read this first part...'The Many, the Divider'"

"Abraxas, the Many." She echoed, seizing another white thread"Divides a Spell's effect amongst many targetsUsed in the Runic language to denote numbers, indicates 'more than one'." She couldn't say how she knew it, but already her hands were at work, plucking threads from the fabric before her, spinning them together until they were a blur of white light. The whisperings grew louder, and the shape of the Rune became clearer.

She lost track of how long she stood there, but it wasn't long before the Rune was completed, floating in the air before her. She paused only a moment, pulling more threads out of the Veil to start again. "The next one. Quickly."

"'Ethrion. The Three.'" Lindsey read.

"One of the numbers used with Abraxas. Denotes three targets or recipients of a Spell's effects." She started piecing the rune together.

"One question." Jonathan asked Minerva. "What kind of Spell are we going to use these with? I mean, a Magickal Attack probably wouldn't work; it wouldn't affect an Ancient unless another Ancient cast it. We don't have that kind of power."

"I do not know." The glowing lines of light cast patterns on Minerva's face. "What is there that we _could_ use? Most of the Spells I know of wouldn't be of much help..." She tugged on the sleeves of her robe.

"Bind." Edward suggested. "The new Runes give a Spell three targets. If we could Bind all three of them, we could force them to retreat from the Veil...or destroy each other."

"Sounds like it might work." Anna smiled in spite of herself. "Good thinking, Father-in-Law."

Edward smiled back.

"There. I think I'm finished." The avatar stepped back, looking tired and out of breath. Next to the Abraxas Rune a second Rune was floating, whole and complete. They hovered expectantly, but already their light was vanishing back into the Veil. "Should we head to the Spell Circle now?"

No one answered. They were to busy staring at something behind her. The avatar turned around, looked up, and saw the bright blue circle that had open up in the air above them.

"They've come." Minerva said. Her voice didn't betray her panic. "Get to the Spell Circle as fast as you can. If we can avoid them until they summon their masters, we may have a chance."

The city shook; over the sound of crumbling masonry Chattur'gha's guttural growl could be heard. As one they all turned and ran for the central plaza.

"Take the back roads." Minerva directed, turning off into a narrow path between two buildings. As she ran, the avatar looked back to the sky. The blue portal had disappeared. The Ulyaoth Liche now hovered in the air, searching the city for them.

There was no more time.

The Ulyaoth Liche scanned the city from its vantage point high above it. They had already found the new Runes; how it was not sure, but the fabric of the Veil was only just now returning to normal. If they had the Runes, than they potentially had a weapon against it.

Elsewhere in the city, the Chattur'gha and Xel'lotath Liches had arrived. The Ulyaoth Liche ignored them. It couldn't afford to waste time on them anymore.

The Ulyaoth Liche floated to the ground. The foundations had already been laid; there were no more preparations to make. All that was needed now was the final Summoning ritual, and that wouldn't take more than a few minutes...

It smiled, and began the final Spell.

End Chapter 10 

A/N: Six pages? Why did it take me a bloody year to write six bloody pages? Oh well. Hope this chapter was worth the wait, and thank you so much for your patience! Chapter 11 coming soon! (Really. It is. I promise.)


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